The use of the nominal group technique as an evaluative tool in the teaching and summative assessment of the inter-personal skills of student mental health nurses.

Nominal group technique is a semi-quantitative/qualitative evaluative methodology. It has been used in health care education for generating ideas to develop curricula and find solutions to problems in programme delivery. This paper aims to describe the use of nominal group technique and present the data from nominal group evaluations of a developing module which used novel approaches to the teaching and assessment of interpersonal skills. Evaluations took place over 3 years. Thirty-six students took part in annual groups. Analysis of the data produced the following themes based on items generated in the groups: role play, marking, course content, teaching style and user involvement. Findings indicate that students valued the role play, feedback from service users and emphasis on engagement and collaboration elements of the module. The areas which participants found difficult and desired change included anxiety during experiential practice, the "snap shot" nature of assessment and the use of specific interventions. Indications are also given regarding the impact of changes made by teaching staff over the 3 year evaluation period. The findings support themes within the existing literature on the teaching of interpersonal skills and may to some extent point the way toward best practice in this area. The paper discusses these findings and their implications for nurse education.