title: Implications of multiple-choice testing in nursing education.
abstract: The evaluation of knowledge/competence is understood as an essential component of nursing education and practice. As such, nurse educators have a plethora of existing evaluation strategies from which to choose. A common written evaluative format used across all higher education settings is multiple-choice testing. This evaluation approach is accepted as a 'user-friendly' strategy to assess knowledge. Researchers from the disciplines of psychology and education have long been concerned with the consequences of multiple-choice testing on learning outcomes, a discussion that is essentially absent from the nursing literature. The purpose of this paper is to address the professional implications of multiple-choice testing in nursing. The potential knowledge consequences for nurse-learners, and by extension the provision of care to healthcare recipients, resultant from use of this testing modality are addressed within the context of the implementation of best practice guidelines in a long-term care home in a mid-sized rural and northern Canadian community with both regulated and non-regulated care providers.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. pbailey@laurentian.ca
authors.forename: Patricia H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Sharolyn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mossey
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moroso
authors.forename: Julie Duff
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cloutier
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Love
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research