Clinical objectives: a method to evaluate clinical performance in critical care orientation

Abstract

Evaluation of clinical performance can often be difficult because of the subjectivity and lack of clinical objectives to guide the evaluation process. Although the use of clinical objectives is not a new concept, many orientation programs do not offer clinical objectives to assess the progress of the orientee's clinical learning. Effective evaluation of clinical performance has been a recurrent problem for nurse educators. This may be because of difficulty in clearly defining objective measurement criteria. This article details the use of clinical objectives in evaluation of clinical performance in nurses orienting to the critical care environment.