Use Of Hesi Exams example essay topic

Measuring competency levels with Health Education Systems, Inc Exams in Schools of Nursing Research critique Title and Facts The article that I have chosen to critique is an article that was written by S. Morrison, C. Adamson, A. N ibert, and S. Hsia for who are all PhD, RN licensed. The article is entitled "HESI Exams: An Overview of Reliability and Validity". The title of this article is appropriate and descriptive in that this article addresses the means of measuring the reliability and validity of the Health Education Systems, Inc (HESI) Exams. This article evaluates two HESI exams.

These exams are HESI specialty exams and HESI exit exams. The authors tell us within the article why the specialty exam was developed and how it is used. The specialty exam assesses the student's comprehension and ability to relate concepts within particular content areas. Facilities consider the scores from these exams and use them as a replacement for teacher-made final exams. The HESI specialty exams consist of 50-items.

The authors speak about mid curricular exams which are custom exams given to students to evaluate several nursing courses consisting of 100-test items as well as making them a valuable tool as an exit exam at the end of the first half of the curriculum. The article goes on to explain the reason the exit exam was developed which is to evaluate students' preparedness for the licensing exam to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students and the possible need for remediation before they are to take the li censure exam. The exit exam is a 150-item comprehensive exam given towards the end of the curriculum. There are different versions of this exit exam for the RN and the PN students to take. There are currently four versions for RN students and two versions available for PN students.

The exit exams have shown to reveal a high degree of accurateness in predicting outcomes of the students that sit for the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN exams. These exams also give a based organization that can be used for program strength, weakness, development and modification. The National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLN AC) and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (C CNE) call for schools of nursing to exhibit a systematic program evaluation. For this reason the schools of nursing have started using these exams more and more in recent years. According to HESI database records (Morrison et al., 2004) the number of schools of nursing using HESI exams increased from 85 in December 1999 to 565 in December 2003, an increase of 565% in 4 years.

Purpose The purpose of this article is to explain the methods used to ascertain reliability and validity for these exams, the existing reliability result for HESI specialty exams and HESI exit exams, and the existing validity information in support of HESI specialty and HESI exit exams. The conceptual framework used in developing the HESI exams is grounded in classical test and critical thinking theory. The creation, administration, and interpretation of tests are accomplished through educational and psychological measurement processes (Morrison et al., 2004). Theoretical Framework The critical thinking portion of the exam was based on Paul's Critical Thinking Theory (1993) and Blooms Critical Taxonomy (1956). In the article Morrison et al., 2004, makes mention that Crocker and Algin a stated that measurement of psychological attributes occurs when quantitative values are assigned to the sample of behaviors obtained from administering a test.

Literature Review In reviewing the literature it is appropriate, inclusive, informative and up-to-date. There are detailed explanations of the different types of HESI exams, what each one is used for, what the exams are going to prove. However, in the title HESI should have been spelled out initially to give the average reader some incite of what the article was going to be discussing. The authors were detailed and concise in telling us (the reader) about the reliability of the HESI test. I commend the authors for stating up front that the validity of the study is going to be a continued progression that will call for a need of supplementary approaches to ascertain validity beyond those described in the classical test theory evidence of validity will be proven when available. Ethical Considerations The ethical consideration in this as stated in the article will be to protect those participates who take the HESI exams, NCLEX-RN, and NCLEX-PN and grant permission to let them gain assess to their results to analyze.

In reference to informed consent, it is stated that the researchers plan to obtain permission for use of test scores to be reviewed and analyzed. However, as far as the questionnaire given to the nurse educators evaluating the HESI exam it is not clear if this is an anonymous questionnaire or if the evaluator will be identified. Methodology In observing and classifying similar behaviors of the test taker, the test designer was able to draw assumptions about the psychological constructs that contribute to their makeup. The test designer was also able to recognize associations among psychological constructs and practical consequences, as a result predicting test-taking behaviors, for example accomplishment in nursing practice.

The test designer must identify the observations on behalf of the constructs that describe these behaviors initially in order to make these predictions. Syllabi from nursing programs across the United States are used by nurses to play a role in the revision and design along with NCLEX test blueprints provided by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) to govern what behavior is vital for entry-level practice, from there the HESI item writers can construct test items for use on the HESI exams that purposely measure these test-taking behaviors. The article speaks of designs being used to establish validity, which are content validity; construct validity and criterion-related validity as in classical test theory. Content validity deals with how effective the exam items are. The nurse educators and clinicians are measuring the basic nursing knowledge and skills. Construct validity is demonstrated by the use of NCLEX blueprints and the NCSBN practice test of new nursing graduates.

Criterion-related validity is used with regard to assumptions made in predicting student outcomes in testing. The authors stated that there are currently three proposals that are going to be presented in the future. The first of the three proposals the article speaks about would be studies that focus on objective methods for collecting and analyzing data obtained from the nurses who review HESI test items, in using random sampling of HESI test items this will offer to nurse reviewers along with a questionnaire about these test items' the significance to nursing practice and their importance as they relate to the model for writing critical thinking test items described by Morrison et al. The article goes on to say that they could then analyze to distinguish the quantity of strength exhibited by these exams.

The author also notes in the second of the third proposal that differential item function studies need to be conducted on outcome facts from HESI exam administrations. The third proposal is to have questionnaires that would assess the level of satisfaction facilities report with the HESI exams as their student's competency levels and curricular outcome achievements are assessed. Results There are three unpublished studies where convergent validity is observed. The first study takes the final course grades of ADN students and compares them with the results of the HESI test. This shows correlation between the two and is statistically significant in three separate areas. The correlation was evidenced in the overall score of (p = .

05). The third study found a significant correlation between the cumulative GPA'S and exit scores. Based on the data collected from 19,554 subjects over four years the HESI exam was 96.46% to 98.46% accurate in predicting NCLEX success. What all this means is that nurse educators can be confident in knowing that the use of the HESI exam will be useful in measuring a student's progress. This can also be used to insure that the exams are updated and made current on a continuous basis.

Conclusion This research shows how the use of HESI exams can be useful in determining the success of individual students. It is consistent in the sense that the results of different studies show a connection in HESI scores and program tests scores. It is also a good indicator how well students can do on actual critical thinking exams, measuring students' competencies and program outcomes for example. In other word this all means that the more sound studies done successfully, facilities can use these results to re-evaluate their curriculum to benefit the student nursing population. Evaluation I found that this article difficult to read at times. There were no clear independent nor dependent variables identified that I could see.

In the title they should have not abbreviated Health Education Systems, Inc (HESI) because the average reader would not know what that meant. This article is relevant to nursing practice in every spectrum in that it shows how discoveries of reliability and validity can impact the nursing practice as a whole. The future recommendations are going to be beneficial for nurses to confidently and meticulously enter the workforce well prepare from the classroom based scenarios that will govern us in.