Cockett, Andrea Michelle;
(2020)
‘Becoming a nurse’: Students’ perceptions of the role of assessment in enabling them to meet the requirements of their programme of study to ‘become a nurse’.
Doctoral thesis (Ed.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Undertaking a programme of study in a university is likened to a process of becoming, in which the student adopts the mantle of the discipline they are studying. For nursing students this is described as professional socialisation: a process by which the student acquires the knowledge, skills and attributes required to make them a nurse. This thesis explored how nursing students perceived assessment contributed to them ‘becoming a nurse’. A narrative inquiry approach to data collection and analysis was used locating the study within a social constructivist paradigm. Seven final year undergraduate nursing students were interviewed and their experiences and perceptions of both nursing and assessment were recorded. Narrative accounts were prepared which were then analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The study was framed theoretically by Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field. These were chosen as they provided recognition that the participants experienced assessment in different contexts, different settings and with different social and educational histories influencing their understandings. These concepts also closely aligned to the narrative approach, providing a link between the methodological and theoretical stances. The findings revealed that nursing students recognised the importance of both assessment and feedback and felt that they contributed to their ‘becoming a nurse’ in a number of ways: motivation for learning, developmental opportunities and fostering patient safety were three key findings. They also discussed assessment as a formative opportunity rather than as for certification suggesting that they viewed it as for learning rather than of learning. Nursing knowledge was characterised by participants as being either ‘science’, identified as immediately applicable to their clinical practice or ‘theory’ which was not. Assessment was perceived by the participants to be an essential component of their ‘becoming a nurse’ with benefits for both themselves and the patients they cared for.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ed.D |
| Title: | ‘Becoming a nurse’: Students’ perceptions of the role of assessment in enabling them to meet the requirements of their programme of study to ‘become a nurse’ |
| Event: | UCL |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10095295 |
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