Development of MiniCEX to assess nurses' clinical skills concerning medication

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.202044465474

Abstract

The clinical practice of nurses requires the development of skills that directly imply the safety and quality of care. The Mini
Clinical Evaluation Exercise (MiniCEX) is a tool for evaluating clinical practice in real contexts that helps the self-regulation
aspect of the learning experience based upon feedback at the end of each evaluated moment. This study aimed to build
a MiniCEX for nurses and undergraduate nursing students, on clinical skills in the process of preparing, administering, and
monitoring medications. This is developmental research. The theories that supported the methodological route were: Patricia
Benner's model for the development of clinical skills in nursing; David Kolb's Experiential learning theory; the Medication
System described by Cassiani et al.; the Patient Classification Instrument per complexity of nursing care, according to the
area of care, proposed by Fugulin, Gaidzinski and Kurcgant; and, the assumptions of the National Patient Safety Program,
focusing on safety in medication practice. Thus, three competencies were organized: preparation, administration, and
monitoring of patients using drugs. As feedback is essential in MiniCEX, the studies by Hattie and Timperley, and Hattie and
Clarke on feedback in the teaching-learning processes were considered. Thus, it is possible to characterize the MiniCEX
outlined as an instrument for educational assessments, capable of developing specific nursing skills, which can be used both
for nursing students during the practice of internships, as well as for monitoring and assessing the medicating skills of novice
nurses to a given clinical setting.