Peer Assessment for Professional Practice Learning

Berragan, Elizabeth ORCID: 0000-0002-3345-6341, Darch, Joy, Oxlade, Nick, Saveker, Selina, Jefferies, Rachel, Walker, Moira ORCID: 0000-0001-7010-6802, Elias, Charlotte ORCID: 0000-0003-3364-0496, Lloyd, Andy and Guy, Stuart (2019) Peer Assessment for Professional Practice Learning. In: RCN Education Forum National Conference & Exhibition 2019, 12th-13th March 2019, Bristol UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The popularity and appeal of learning and assessment through the medium of simulation is now so widespread within undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare education that it has become a ubiquitous pedagogy (Berragan, 2014). A body of research attests to the capacity of simulation to improve learners' technical and non-technical skills through direct and active participation in immersive experiences. However, in programmes where there may be large numbers of students, resource limitations often lead to simulations being conducted as group activities. Evidence suggests that when this happens, learners who take on an observer role instead of being an actual participant in the simulation, can lose interest and disengage from the learning experience (Kettlewell, 2012; Harder et al., 2013). As a new and small team of nurse educators, in order to engage learners in both learning and assessment and to address resourcing and sustainability, we have developed an innovative approach offering students an engaging and focussed group learning and assessment experience. A level 4 nursing module focusing upon assessment and skills development requires students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in peer pairs through an Observed Structured Clinical Experience (OSCE). Each student works through an assessment framework for deteriorating or critically ill patients with a peer observing the full patient assessment. Feedback following the OSCE is managed and conducted by the peer observer guided by a set of nationally recognised criteria for the specific skill performed. Students are then given a period of time for reflection upon their experience during which they are required to answer a number of reflective questions (introduced at the beginning of the module) drawing upon the feedback received from their peer. Students are then invited to attend an oral examination where they will address a number of the reflective questions and have an opportunity to articulate different elements of their learning. Students report that this approach facilitates support and interactivity between students addressing different learning styles and offering opportunities for the development and use of critiquing, questioning, challenging and reflecting skills as well as nursing assessment skills (Hwang et al., 2014; Gervais, 2006). Participants also suggest that using this assessment design, feedback is timely following on directly from student activity supporting the notion of collaborative working to achieve a common goal. Students describe the value of working together to manage the feedback process and identify learning points which will be taken into clinical practice on their next placement, engendering a sense of professional identity and development as students begin to perform as nurses (Berragan 2013). This approach to assessment offers a reflective opportunity to consider not only what has occurred during assessment and what has been learned, but also how this might be transferred to practice both in relation to direct patient care and also in relation to future achievement of learning outcomes. It is our intention that learning and assessment through this module will support nursing students to deliver safe, responsive and effective patient care.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Peer assessment; Professional Practice Learning; Nurse education
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education R Medicine > RT Nursing
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Health and Social Care
Research Priority Areas:	Health, Life Sciences, Sport and Wellbeing
Depositing User:	Liz Berragan
Date Deposited:	10 Jul 2020 08:05
Last Modified:	27 Jul 2023 14:34
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/8546

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