Development of a simulation evaluation tool for assessing nursing students' clinical judgment in caring for children with dehydration

•This study was the development of a tool to evaluate students’ clinical judgment in simulation practice.•A SETc-dehydration with 41 items and three subscales was developed.•The SETc-dehydration was examined the reliability and validity.

SummaryBackgroundThe lack of reliable and valid tools to evaluate learning outcomes during simulations has limited the adoption and progress of simulation-based nursing education.PurposesThis study had two aims: (a) to develop a simulation evaluation tool (SETc-dehydration) to assess students' clinical judgment in caring for children with dehydration based on the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric (LCJR) and (b) to examine its reliability and validity.ParticipantsUndergraduate nursing students from two nursing schools in South Korea participated in this study from March 3 through June 10, 2014.MethodsThe SETc-dehydration was developed, and 120 nursing students' clinical judgment was evaluated. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Cohen's kappa coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to analyze the data.ResultsA 41-item version of the SETc-dehydration with three subscales was developed. Cohen's kappa (measuring inter-observer reliability) of the sessions ranged from .73 to .95, and Cronbach's alpha was .87. The mean total rating of the SETc-dehydration by the instructors was 1.92 (± .25), and the mean scores for the four LCJR dimensions of clinical judgment were as follows: noticing (1.74 ± .27), interpreting (1.85 ± .43), responding (2.17 ± .32), and reflecting (1.79 ± .35). CFA, which was performed to test construct validity, showed that the four dimensions of the SETc-dehydration was an appropriate framework.ConclusionThe SETc-dehydration provides a means to evaluate clinical judgment in simulation education. Its reliability and validity should be examined further.