Applying Self-Evaluation for Gaining Skills in Intradermal Medicine Administration

Abstract

The scope of the present paper is to identify the degree of skill in administering medicine intradermally, based on a self-evaluation done through a checklist, in a group of nursing undergraduates from a private university in Colombia who were taking a Medicine Administration course. Methodology involved an evaluative observational study, including 47 students, during the first term of 2011. A checklist with 21 items was used to evaluate the fulfilment of all the steps of the process of the intradermal administration of medicine, which was done by students in two occasions, first in a simulated situation and with teachers present, and afterwards when students independently visited the university’s centre of clinic simulations and performed an intradermal injection on a simulated patient, which was filmed, and then ran the checklist as they watched themselves, concluding the self-evaluation. Results confirmed a significant statistical improvement when comparing the results of both self-evaluations, performed at different times. A smaller dispersion was also seen in the evaluations. It was thus concluded that this teaching model and the self-evaluations improve the students’ self-learning abilities and their overall preparation. Self-learning and self-evaluation require the implementation of motivational strategies which complement the teaching model. Checklists are therefore tools that reinforce the learning process and encourage autonomy and skill improvement.