3.7 Assessment decisions

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The NMC (2018a) say that ‘assessments and confirmation of proficiency are based on an understanding of student achievements across theory and practice’. Which means that student assessment must be evidence based, robust and objective so providing assurance of student achievements and competence.

Practice Supervisors/Practice Assessors must apply un-prejudged reasoning when looking for evidence of professional development and competence in accordance with the NMC’s (2018a) standards for student supervision and assessment. In doing so Practice Supervisors/Practice Assessors must understand the factors that can influence the assessment process to avoid invalidating it (Walsh, 2020, pp. 155–6). These affects can emerge in various ways and the Practice Supervisors/Practice Assessors need to be mindful of these.

Take a look at various effects and the potential impacts of these:

• Halo effect: This occurs when our knowledge and cognitive impression of a student influences the assessment process towards a favourable judgement.
• Horn effect: Is the opposite of the halo effect. A person’s perception of another is unduly influenced by a negative trait leading to a negative judgement.
• Hawthorne effect: Derived from experimental studies is a phenomenon where it is thought that a person works harder and performs better when they know they are being observed.

It is important as assessors to ensure that we are objective and fair and are cognisant of not ‘being too lenient’; ‘being too soft’ by overlooking mistakes or the opposite of being too severe; ‘being too hard’. Similarly, we need to ensure we are not ‘playing it too safe’ and awarding middle grades and not being willing to award high or low grades.

Ultimately as a Practice Supervisor/Practice Assessor you are accountable for the decisions you make and may need to justify the decisions you have made. The NMC (2018d) are very clear that all student assessments should be objective and fair. There is no doubt that assessing competency is a subjective activity and as assessors you need to be very conscious of this. One way to test yourself when making an assessment decision is to ask yourself, ‘if I were to be challenged on the evidence base I used to make this decision, what would I produce/argue’. If you are able to write the ‘evidence’ down, then you are validating the assessment you have made and this will help you significantly when providing feedback to the student (which you will explore further in Section 4.2).

This section has talked about the assessment process and your role in this. Conducting a fair, objective and meaningful assessment requires the assessor to utilise different, but robust strategies to evidence the assessment decisions which are made. This process can be enhanced significantly by planning the students experience by developing and agreeing objectives to be achieved by the end of the placement. However there needs to be time built into the placement, where a review of the students’ progress needs to be carried out and, if necessary, adjustments to the original objectives made. Ultimately the assessor is responsible and accountable for the assessment decisions made on a student and their practice.