Abstract
Accepted 19th July, 2014
Challenges are often disturbing elements in the life of a profession but there are always in existence due to the changing nature and growth of that profession. Nursing is not an exception and area of the challenge is the assessment of students during clinical placement to ascertain the extent of uptake of skills and competencies. The survey on challenges clinical assessors face when assessing competencies and skills in students placed under their care sought to elicit information on difficulties often encountered which may hamper the assessment process of student nurses. The objectives were to identify challenges, elucidate coping strategies and present suggestions by the study population. The results have shown a lot of challenges face, coping strategies used to resolve some the challenges and long lasting solutions to most of the challenges with collaboration between the clinical site and training institution being highly needed. The results can remind practicing nurses on the assessment of skills and competencies in students, upgrade the skills need to overcome challenges and awaken training institutions on their role in assisting in overcoming the challenges.
Keywords: Assessing skills and competencies, student nurses, clinical mentors, challenges, coping strategies