Nursing 201 Course Assessment Report-Spring 2014
Submitted by:
L. Jim Bentley, RN, MSED, ANP-C,
Assistant Professor, Nursing
Introduction
1. Nursing 201 is comprised of two sections in the spring PNET[31627]
and NU201X34(31645).
2. 50 students 20 from the first section and 30 from the second. The
course began with 56 students and experienced attrition occurring at
various points due to clinical weakness or following an exam.
It is the third course of four, in a clinical course sequence, which adds a
significant amount of clinical pathophysiologic complexity, multiple patient
clinical experiences, a writing intensive experience and an expectation of
development in all of the learning outcomes.
3. Course Student Learning Outcomes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Professional Behaviors
Communication
Assessment
Clinical Decision Making
Caring Interventions
Teaching & Learning
Collaboration
Managing Care
Each Clinical course evaluates students based on each of the student learning
outcomes and competencies based on them. These evaluations are currently carried
out using multiple-choice exams for the didactic material and clinical observation in
both real life experiential clinical situations and in designed laboratory simulation
scenarios in our virtual hospital laboratory.
The purpose of this assessment of our course is to evaluate whether or not students
leave our course with an enhanced ability to think critically and quantify it through
use of a rubric, for certain key Learning Outcomes and their equivalent General
Education Objective.
General Education Objective
Course Learning Outcomes
Use analytical reasoning to identify
issues or problems and evaluate
evidence in order to make
informed decisions.
Integrate critical thinking
strategies, nursing course and
general education course content,
and evidence-based best practice
information to plan, implement and
evaluate safe, effective, quality care
for adult and maternal/child
client(s) with complex medical
conditions across various
healthcare settings.
Competencies
a. Analyze information from various sources using the nursing process and critical thinking strategies to
formulate clinical judgments that result in safe, effective care for the adult and maternal/child clients.
b. Utilize critical thinking, evidence-based research and the nursing process to analyze physiological,
psychosocial, reproductive and/or developmental needs of the adult and maternal-child clients, in order
to achieve positive outcomes.
c. Integrate principles of client safety and quality improvements with adult and maternal/child clients
utilizing the National Patient Safety Goals and adhering to hospital policy/protocol. Utilize the same
safety principles to prevent injury to self and other healthcare providers.
Didactic Assessment Plan:
4. I have evaluated three high-stakes exams worth 60% of the total grade to determine the student’s
success in answering questions designed to assess critical thinking. One exam covered Obstetrics,
one covered Cardiovascular Health and one covered Diabetes and other Endocrine This will be
done by examining those questions designated as analytical or involving synthesis of data and
labeled as “clinical decision making” by the developer of the test question and labeled as such on
the exam blueprint. Rubric Attached!
5. All students took the exams using Scantron answer cards and their grades are assessed by a
computer program called Par-Score, which provides grade distribution data like median, mean,
range, KR20 and point bi-serials and the percentage of students who answer each question
correctly. The ELOA Benchmark of >70% total students’ answering each question correctly
was chosen since it’s near the passing grade of 74.
6. I found a total of 38 total questions classified as “Clinical Decision Making” in three exams,
and measured the number and percentage of those questions answered correctly by more than
70% of the students. The questions were then arranged in order of the lowest percentile success
rate (< 60%) to the highest percentile (> 80%-Satisfactory), using a four-grade scale rubric. The
rubric set a satisfactory ELOA benchmark of 70% (70-79%- Fair), or above of students answering
the clinical thinking questions correctly (Passing grade is 74%). Further I mark 70% as the ELOA
and satisfactory number of Questions with satisfactory group responses. The ELOA was not met
with all questions as a whole (60.5%) or in 2/3 exams. The cardiac exam demonstrated the
lowest scores as is typical. Potential causes could be; test questions are too hard, this is a
weak cohort, or material was not presented or learned well in this a Pilot “PNET Course”
 In addition each question is examined for it’s P-value and it’s spread across all the distractor
choices and if found to be statistically unreliable or not valid it was not counted in the assessment.
 Finally this assessment should be used to evaluate multiple similar sections of other student
cohorts to examine consistent trends before making any drastic changes in response to this
assessment. This particular cohort has been weak throughout its history with a significant
attrition in both NU-101 & NU-102.

If students are consistently weak in this area Instructors should re-evaluate the questions used or
provide students with more instruction or practice in the strategies to use to improve their
performance on these type of questions.
7. If necessary I can provide samples of, the Exam Blueprint – Key which identifies all the “Clinical
Decision Making” Questions, as well as the Exam Item Analysis Data Sheet.
8. The data will be collected throughout the Spring 14 semester.
Queensborough Community College
Nursing 201 Exam
Critical Thinking Assessment Tool
Course: NU-201
Term / Year: Spring 2014
This rubric will be used to measure the # correct student responses for each exam question labeled as a
“Clinical Decision Question”.
1. The ELOA Benchmark of >70% total students’ answering each question correctly was chosen since
it’s near the passing grade of 74.
2. The total number of questions answered correctly should again be greater than 70%
demonstrating successful management of these questions which demonstrate critical thinking.
Unsatisfactory
Less than
Satisfactory
Fair
Satisfactory
Exam 1 OB
< 60% score
n=0
61-69 % score
n=3
70-79% score
n=0
Exam 2 CV
< 60% score
n=4
61-69 % score
n=2
70-79% score
n=2
Exam 3
Endo/GU/Onc
< 60% score
n=3
61-69 % score
n=3
70-79% score
n=1
7
8
> 80%
score
n=8
> 80%
score
n=3
> 80%
score
n=9
20
Total Scores in
each category
3
23/38 = 60.5%
Goal 70% score in
Fair or Satisfactory
category not met
% Questions
Answered
Correct
73%
45%
62.5%
38 total clinical
decision
questions
Comments: The ELOA was not met with all questions as a whole (60.5%) or in 2/3 exams. The cardiac
exam demonstrated the lowest scores as is typical. Potential causes could be; test questions are too hard,
this is a weak cohort, or material was not presented or learned well in this a Pilot “PNET Course”. Prior to
accepting any cause other semesters should be compared. This particular cohort has been weak
throughout its history with a significant attrition in both NU-101 & NU-102.