ISSUES AND INNOVATIONS IN NURSING EDUCATION Assessing practice of student nurses: methods, preparation of assessors and student views Lynn Calman BSc MSc RGN RMN Post-graduate Student, Department of Nursing Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Roger Watson BSc PhD CBiol MIBiol ILTM FRSA Professor of Nursing, Department of Nursing and Applied Health Studies, University of Hull, Hull, UK Ian Norman BA MSc PhD RGN RMN RMNH CQSW Professor of Nursing and Interdisciplinary Care, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, UK Sally Redfern BSc PhD RGN Professor of Nursing and Director, Nursing Research Unit, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, UK and Trevor Murrells BSc MSc Statistician, Nursing Research Unit, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, UK Submitted for publication 12 October 2001 Accepted for publication 19 February 2002 516 Ó 2002 Blackwell Science Ltd Correspondence: Lynn Calman, Department of Nursing Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2nd Floor, 12 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, UK. E-mail: lynn.calman@ed.ac.uk CALMAN L WATSON R NORMAN I REDFERN S & MURRELLS T CALMAN L ., WATSON R ., NORMAN I ., REDFERN S . & MURRELLS T . (2002) (2002) Journal of Advanced Nursing 38(5), 516–523 Assessing practice of student nurses: methods, preparation of assessors and student views Aims. To describe the methods of measuring progress in achieving competence of preregistration nursing and midwifery students used by institutions of higher and further education in Scotland and to describe the philosophy and approaches to competence assessment in each institution. Background. Institutions of higher and further education in Scotland operate a variety of schemes to assess the clinical practice of student nurses. These are based on different philosophies and practices and this raises the question of which are valid and reliable. Methods. All institutions in Scotland providing validated Diploma of Higher Education programmes for preregistration nursing and midwifery participated in this study. Data were collected by postal questionnaire, review of programme documentation and supplemented with interviews with key stakeholders. The directors of the 13 programmes (seven nursing and six midwifery programmes) were surveyed and also 12 group interviews with students (six nursing and six midwifery student groups) from seven institutions. Students from all four branches were represented and 72 students (36 nurses and 36 midwives) were interviewed. Results. Four key findings were identified and related to competence assessment methods, preparation of practice assessors, consequences of failure to meet expected level of outcome and students’ views.