Voice of a Nurse: An Innovative One-Minute Assessment Method

BACKGROUND: Traditional pathophysiology and pharmacology assessments fail to capture students' ability to apply knowledge in patient communication. There is a need for assessment methods that integrate clinical knowledge with person-centered nursing care. This article describes a pilot assessment method called "Voice of a Nurse," evaluating students' ability to explain pathophysiology and pharmacology concepts by responding to a patient's question with a 1-minute audio recording. METHOD: Nursing students enrolled in a combined pathophysiology and pharmacology course read a prompted patient concern. After a 5-minute preparatory period, participants recorded a 1-minute response, which was evaluated on professional introduction, clinical accuracy, patient-friendly language, empathy, and time management. RESULTS: This low-stakes assessment method successfully integrates clinical knowledge with communication skills and is easy to implement and grade. CONCLUSION: The Voice of a Nurse assessment offers nursing educators a practical and scalable method for evaluating the knowledge and communication skills of undergraduate nursing students.