The goal of nursing education is to produce competent registered nurses. Internationally educational providers are increasingly occupied with simulating the authentic world by developing purpose built clinical skills labs. These labs are used to develop and assess clinical (psychomotor) skills acquisition. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination [OSCE] is gaining popularity as one of the preferred assessment methods to measure psychomotor performance.
Registered nurses operating in the real world simultaneously apply complex psychomotor, cognitive and affective skills. Nursing students therefore require assessment opportunities that pay equal attention to all these skills, along with evidence to demonstrate the skill of critique and the ability to integrate theory and practice. A truly authentic assessment would at the very least offer these students the ability to review, reflect and critique their own performance, with the express intention of continuously improving it. It is within this type of assessment that the student holds the potential to foster and grow capability so that they can realistically and meaningfully excel.
This paper will showcase the development of innovative assessment in a New Zealand Nursing degree programme operating within a learner centered paradigm. The overall plan is to utilise research to develop and use OSCEs in combination with simple technology to achieve authentic assessments.