An exploration of nursing students' and clinical instructors' perceptions of patient and parent involvement in the assessment of nursing students during pediatric clinical placements: A qualitative study

Aim: Clinical instructors are typically the sole assessors of nursing students completing their pediatric clinical placement in Canadian children's hospitals, as per their educational institution's assessment criteria and learning objectives. The purpose of this study was to explore nursing students' and clinical instructors' perceptions of and experiences with involving pediatric patients and parents in assessing nursing students during their pediatric clinical placement. Design: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study. Methods: We completed semi-structured interviews with fourth-year nursing students and pediatric clinical instructors from a University located in a city in central-eastern Canada. We used qualitative content analysis to analyze the data. Results: We found that students and instructors perceived patient and parent involvement in the assessment of nursing students' clinical practice as beneficial for patients, parents, students and instructors. Students and instructors believed patients and parents could contribute to assessing students' communication and therapeutic relationship skills. However, we identified potential challenges including patients' and parents' lack of knowledge regarding nursing skills, as well as added stress for students and parents. Conclusion: Future studies should focus on ways of overcoming these challenges before implementing this novel assessment process.