Assessment of the clinical performance of nursing students in the workplace: Exploring the role of benchmarking using the Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool (ANSAT)

Abstract

Nursing is a regulated profession that requires each nurse to meet requisite standards. Successful nursing registration is reliant on the quality of pre-registration education and assessment. Benchmarking is a systematic, consistent and innovative way to identify areas of improvement. In nursing education, external referencing through benchmarking can identify areas for improvement in nursing education and facilitates equitable performance comparisons between higher education providers. To optimise benchmarking of nursing students’ performance, a standardised, systematic assessment process of all student nurses is necessary. In Australia, the Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool is the only scholarly published assessment tool that assesses performance over a range of activities and settings objectively in work-based learning. As such, there is an opportunity to use this tool to determine and benchmark nursing students’ performance in clinical learning environments. By recording and comparing assessment scores, stakeholders including student nurses, clinical sites and higher education providers can explore factors associated with workplace performance. Benchmarking identifies consistencies and discrepancies. Additionally, findings from benchmarking activities provide the impetus for further research in nursing education and clinical performance.