Objective To identify the factors which influence the effectiveness of clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students. Methods A self-made questionnaire was used in face-to-face interviews with 158 clinical teachers of undergraduate nursing students in four teaching hospitals in Sichuan. Results The main factors that influence the effectiveness of clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students included: clinical environment, duration of evaluation, degree of familiarity with the evaluation criteria of clinical teachers, and evaluation methods used by clinical teachers. The less important factors included: “halo-effect” of teachers to students, relationship between teachers and students, attitude towards evaluation and emotional status of clinical teachers. Conclusion It is of great importance to improve the clinical environment, provide enough time for clinical teachers to evaluate, cultivate and improve clinical teachers’ evaluation and competence, and establish a good relationship between teachers and students.This should improve the accuracy, objectivity and fairness of undergraduate nursing students’ clinical evaluation.
Objective To identify the clinical evaluation methods used for undergraduate nursing students. Methods A self-made questionnaire about the clinical evaluation methods for undergraduate nursing students was used to collect information from 158 tutors of undergraduate nursing students in 4 teaching hospitals in Sichuan province. Results In terms of consulting evaluation opinion from other nurses, there was no significant difference between the ratios of tutors who really adopted and those who perceived as necessary to do so (Pgt;0.05). As for consulting the self-evaluation of nursing students and patients’ evaluation opinion, the ratio of tutors who really adopted was lower than those who perceived as necessary to do so (Plt;0.01). The majority of tutors used real, ward patients for evaluation, while a minority of tutors used demonstration room and model patients. The most effective methods viewed by the tutors were observation, holistic nursing care examination and test, and the most often used evaluation methods were clinical skill test, observation and theoretical exam. Most tutors adopted a continuous evaluation method for the clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students. Conclusion The methods for the clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students varies. This may influence the accuracy, objectivity and fairness of the evaluations. Formulating evaluation sheet of patients and self-evaluation sheet of nursing students, establishing standardized clinical skill examination station, training standardized patients and evaluation skills of clinical tutors, standardizing examination content and relevant evaluation standard and methods, and adopting comprehensive evaluation with various methods may help to improve the accuracy, objectivity and fairness of the clinical evaluation of undergraduate nursing students.