Implications of multiple-choice testing in nursing education

The evaluation of knowledge/competence is understood as an essential component of nursing education and practice. As such, nurse educators have a plethora of existing evaluation strategies from which to choose. A common written evaluative format used across all higher education settings is multiple-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nurse education today 2012-08, Vol.32 (6), p.e40-e44
Main Authors: Bailey, Patricia H., Mossey, Sharolyn, Moroso, Sandra, Cloutier, Julie Duff, Love, Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Choice Behavior
Clinical competence
Clinical medicine
Education, Nursing - methods
Educational Measurement - methods
Educational tests & measurements
Evaluation
Higher education
Humans
Knowledge
Learning
Multiple-choice
Negative suggestion effect
Nursing
Nursing education
Nursing Education Research
Nursing Evaluation Research
Resistance (Psychology)
Testing effect
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Summary:The evaluation of knowledge/competence is understood as an essential component of nursing education and practice. As such, nurse educators have a plethora of existing evaluation strategies from which to choose. A common written evaluative format used across all higher education settings is multiple-choice testing. This evaluation approach is accepted as a ‘user-friendly’ strategy to assess knowledge. Researchers from the disciplines of psychology and education have long been concerned with the consequences of multiple-choice testing on learning outcomes, a discussion that is essentially absent from the nursing literature. The purpose of this paper is to address the professional implications of multiple-choice testing in nursing. The potential knowledge consequences for nurse-learners, and by extension the provision of care to healthcare recipients, resultant from use of this testing modality are addressed within the context of the implementation of best practice guidelines in a long-term care home in a mid-sized rural and northern Canadian community with both regulated and non-regulated care providers.
ISSN:0260-6917
1532-2793
DOI:10.1016/j.nedt.2011.09.011