Title: Mapping the Domains of General Nurse Practice in Performance Appraisal Instruments A Scoping Review
Abstract:
Background: Public demand has intensified for greater accountability in clinical quality provided by caring and competent nurses. Measuring and reporting a nurse’s ability to meet role and performance expectations is core to that accountability. Although the literature is replete with performance appraisal (PA) and competency assessment (CA) instruments, the absence of a universally adopted conceptual framework impedes the industry’s ability to convey whether or not a nurse is meeting role and performance expectations across the industry. This scoping review will identify systematic reviews and single-instrument studies that examine PA and CA instruments explicitly listing the domains of assessed practice. Domains will then be collated and examined to identify common terminology that could inform the creation of a universal conceptual model that depicts the performance expectations of nurse generalists. Methods: This scoping review uses the Johanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Methodology. A search was conducted between March 2018 and March 2019 for systematic and literature reviews published between January 2000 and December 2018 indexed in PubMed, CINAHL, Medline, ScienceDirect, Cochrane, and Google Scholar along with studies found in grey literature. Additionally, studies examining single instruments with clearly identified domains that evaluate generalist nurse performance were included. Results: Eight systematic reviews and 11 single-instrument studies were selected for examination, yielding 37 instruments. Of the 230 total unique domains, the most common domain titles were centered on basic nursing skills (n=50, 22%), foundational skills and capabilities (n=34, 15%) and values (n=26, 11%). 14 instruments were associated with a conceptual model/framework. Conclusions: A conceptual model with standardized terminology is the antecedent of an effective, generalizable performance evaluation instrument. The creation of an industry-wide conceptual model can strengthen role clarity for new and experienced nurses and offer higher accountability to health care colleagues and the public at large
