A Comparison of the Acquisition of the Core Practical Skills of Pediatric Nursing Based on the Students\' Self-Assessment and Professors\' Assessment among Nursing Students

Introduction: One of the challenges during the education of nursing students is the method of assessment of their practical skills . Students' involvement in the assessment process is one of the methods of validating the assessment. This study aimed to compare the acquisition level of the main practical skills of pediatric nursing based on students' self-assessment and professors' assessment among undergraduate nursing students of Shahid Beheshti Faculty of Midwifery and Nursing in Rasht, Iran, from 2023 to 2024. Methods: This cross-sectional and analytical study included eighth-semester undergraduate nursing students of the Shahid Beheshti Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Rasht, Iran. In total, 58 students were selected through convenience sampling. The required data were selected through a demographic characteristics form and a researcher-made questionnaire of expected practical skills in pediatric nursing. This instrument consisted of 47 items that were completed separately by the students and professors, and the scores obtained from the evaluation of the two were compared. Content validity was determined using content validity relative coefficients of 0.7 and a content validity index of 0.8. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) and the Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Bland-Altman plot were used to evaluate the level of agreement between students and professors for the score of achieving the core practical skills of pediatric nursing. Results: In this study, 29 of students (50%) were female. The results indicate that the mean score of core practical skills in pediatric nursing, as assessed by students on a scale of 0 to 100, was 61 ± 12.3, which is above the average range. Moreover, from the professors' perspective, the score for the same skills was obtained at 68.12 ± 9.1, indicating a satisfactory level. The correlation between the self-assessment scores of students and the evaluations from professors concerning the acquisition of core practical skills in pediatric nursing was found to be 0.381 and 0.385, respectively, based on the Concordance Correlation Coefficient(CCC) and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), indicating a weak level of agreement. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, there was no correlation between professors' and students' assessment scores in achieving clinical skills in pediatric nursing. It seems that in educational environments and clinical training, self-assessment, along with professor evaluation, is a powerful tool for accurate assessment and organization of individualized learning. Therefore, self-assessment should be considered a complementary approach to professor evaluation to improve clinical performance.