title: The value of artefacts in stimulated-recall interviews.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the use of artefacts in semi-structured, stimulated-recall interviews in a study exploring mentors' decisions regarding students' competence in practice.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Few empirical studies have examined how mentors reach a decision when assessing students' performance in practice. Concerns have repeatedly been voiced that students may lack essential skills at the point of registration or that mentors may have failed or been reticent to judge students' performance as unsatisfactory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Student practice assessment documents (PADs) were used in stimulated-recall (SR) interviews with mentors to explore decision making.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review of the literature identified that artefacts can play a role in triggering a more comprehensive retrospective examination of decision making, thus helping to capture the essence of a mentor's decision over time and in context.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Use of an artefact to stimulate recall can elicit evidence of thought processes, which may be difficult to obtain in a normal, semi-structured interview. PADs proved to be a valuable way to generate naturalistic decision making. In addition, discussion of artefacts created by participants can promote participant-driven enquiry, thereby reducing researcher bias.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Identifying an approach that captures post hoc decision making based on sustained engagement and interaction between students and their mentors was a challenge. Artefacts can be used to address the difficulties associated with retrospective introspection about a unique decision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is the potential to increase the use of artefacts in healthcare research. SR can also help novice mentors develop their skills in making decisions regarding assessments of students.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Beckett University, West Yorkshire, UK.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Burden
authors.affiliation: Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Topping
authors.affiliation: University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: O'Halloran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008611:Mentors; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013338:Students, Nursing; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: artefact; decision making; mentors; mixed methods; stimulated recall interviews; students