Date of Graduation

8-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Higher Education (EdD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders

Advisor/Mentor

Mamiseishvili, Ketevan

Committee Member

Osborne, Cara

Second Committee Member

McCray, Suzanne

Keywords

Adjunct Nursing Instructors; Clinical Evaluation; Faculty Development; Student Assessment

Abstract

Utilization of adjunct nursing instructors to teach clinical courses is a common occurrence in nursing programs. Adjunct clinical instructors are often expert clinicians, but they have limited experience in teaching and lack the expertise needed to be successful in the educator role, such as knowledge of student assessment. Faculty development programs that focus on student assessment can provide adjunct clinical faculty members with the necessary knowledge to become effective educators and ensure student, faculty, and program success.

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent a faculty development workshop on evaluating students in clinical courses affected adjunct clinical nursing instructors' cognitive and affective behaviors towards clinical evaluation of students. A convenience sample of 38 instructors at a single institution completed the faculty development workshop. A quasi-experimental research design using a single group pretest/posttest was utilized. Benner's Novice to Expert Model guided the development and planning of the faculty development workshop that focused on student assessment in clinical courses. A student oriented learning outline (SOLO) was provided prior to the workshop and evaluated after the workshop. Descriptive statistics, paired t-Test, Shapiro-Wilk test for normality, and a Wilcoxon signed rank sum test were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that adjunct clinical nursing instructors valued the use of the SOLO, gained knowledge about assessment of students in clinical courses, and indicated they would engage in activities that could increase their knowledge of assessment of students in clinical courses. Determining what skills and knowledge are needed for adjunct nursing instructors to be successful and creating formal processes to meet those needs are essential to the future of nursing education.

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