Development of a tool for assessing the clinical competency of Chinese master's nursing students based on the mini-CEX: a Delphi method study.

OBJECTIVE: To construct a scientific and systematic competency evaluation tool for master of nursing specialists (MNS) and to provide a reference for the training, assessment and competency evaluation of MNS.

METHODS: A first draft of the indicators for assessing MNS core competencies was developed on the basis of published research and group discussions. Between June and December 2020, the indicators were revised using two rounds of the Delphi expert consultation method, with questionnaires completed by 16 experts from five provinces in China.

RESULTS: The valid retrieval rate of the two questionnaires was 100.00%, and the coefficient of expert authority was 0.931. The Kendall's concordance coefficients of the two rounds of questionnaires were 0.136 (p<0.05) and 0.147 (p<0.05), respectively. Consensus was reached on the seven dimensions and 52 items of the MNS competency assessment instrument. The instrument dimensions included nurse‒patient communication (9 items), health assessment (7 items), clinical decision-making (8 items), operational skills (7 items), health promotion (6 items), humanistic care (9 items) and organisational effectiveness (6 items).

CONCLUSIONS: The MNS competency assessment tool constructed in this study is focused and highly credible. The findings can be used as a guide for the training, assessment and competence evaluation of MNS in the future.