Factors contributing to undergraduate nursing students' satisfaction with a video assessment of clinical skills

Background: Clinical skill assessment via Objective Structured Clinical Assessment (OSCA) has many challenges for undergraduate nursing students. These include high levels of anxiety that can compromise performance during the assessment, inconsistency with assessor reliability and is inconsistent with clinical skills performance in the real world. The implementation of a Video Assessment of Clinical Skills (VACS) that integrates formative feedback may be a way to address the challenges posed by OSCA assessment. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the acceptability, utility, and nursing student satisfaction with a formative feedback strategy – the Video Assessment of a Clinical Skill (VACS). Design: A cross sectional survey. Settings: Undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing degree students from a large Australian University. Participants: Third year undergraduate nursing students (final year) enrolled in a Bachelor of Nursing Program. Methods: Participants were recruited via purposive sampling. A pre-survey (prior to VACs assessment) and post-survey (after VACS assessment) were completed. This paper reports on the open-ended responses in the post-survey that explored students' insights and perceptions into formative feedback and its impact on their learning for the VACS assessment. Results: A total of 731 open-ended responses were analysed with findings being organised into 3 major themes; (i) Flexibility and reflexivity, (ii) Editing and repeated attempts, and (iii) Working together. Conclusions: Video Assessment of a Clinical Skill has demonstrated good utility, acceptability, and satisfaction among undergraduate nursing students.