Nursing Student’s Perceptions On Formative Assessment Procedures And Its Effects On Midwifery Module Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Diploma Nursing Students In Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Background: The issue of low performance among student nurses is still a challenge in theoretical and clinical practice, insufficient use of formative assessment is among the contributing factors. Objective: To assess of nursing students‟ perceptions on formative assessment procedures and its effects on midwifery II module performance. Method: A cross-sectional study of 430, third year Diploma Nursing Students‟ from seven nursing schools was conducted in Kilimanjaro, Dodoma, and Morogoro regions. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. A sample size was calculated, and participants were obtained using systematic sampling technique. Students‟ perception was measured by 18 questions from the tool adopted and modified from Vaessen (2016), performance of students was reviewed and recorded using NACTE form NO.3. Additionally, an interview guide was used to obtain information from Nurse Tutors to enrich data of this study. Descriptive, inferential and content analysis were used to analyze data of this study. Results: Out of 430 respondents of this study, 221 (51.4%) had positive perception on formative assessment procedures. Of all 430 respondents, 226(53%) had high performance in midwifery II module with the mean score of 69.85%. Moreover, the association between students perception and performance on midwifery II module was not statistically significant(X2 = 0.027, p= 0.870). Additionally the nurse tutors experience on implementation of formative assessment procedures faced challenges such as time factor, resource and teachers student ratio. Conclusion: Majority of students‟ reported positive perception on formative assessment; however, there was no association between perception and actual midwifery performance, yet, students with positive perception performed high than compared to their counterparts.