Assessing the Reliability and Validity of the Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) for Nursing Student

This research was constructed with goal of descriptive and stable investigation for short-term clinical performance assessment test in nursing and among junior students. A total of 100 nursing students from Tehran nursing and midwifery college were chosen as sample that have passed training period in this field. According to scientific board members’ opinions of medical science universities located in Tehran, among main skills of nursing, 7 skills were chosen and their assessment checklists were provided. Apparent and content description, criterion description (correlation of average numbers for theoretical and nursing clinical courses in separation of short-term clinical performance assessment test number (Mini-CEX ), relation of any case with number of Mini-CEX), structure description (investigation of inside structure, correlation of number for student’s satisfaction with number of Mini-CEX), stability (through inside similarity investigation, stability among assessors) were investigated. Correlation of numbers of Mini-CEX was with average theoretical and clinical courses numbers, respectively 0.64 (P < 0.001) and 0.842 (P < 0.001). Correlation of any skill had a meaningful relation with total number of Mini-CEX (P < 0.001) that showed desired inside structure of test. Test stability was measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient as 0.94. Minimum and maximum value of correlation coefficient in stability was 0.80 and 0.95 among assessors that they were meaningful in all cases (P < 0.001). In view of study results, using Mini-CEX test to measure clinical performance of main nursing skills has description and stability.