The role of performance feedback in the self-assessment of competence: a research study with nursing clinicians.

Performance feedback has the potential to contribute to a nurse's self-awareness and, in turn, their ability to self-assess their level of competence. Because a declaration of self-assessment of competence is a current requirement for continuing nursing registration within South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania, the search to identify sources and processes that may assist nurses to self-assess their performance is potentially of benefit to the profession. This paper is based on one aspect of a PhD study exploring the utility of performance feedback primarily from a nursing clinicians' perspective. Focus group interviews were conducted with hospital-based nursing clinicians and the data were analysed using a process of thematic analysis. Findings highlighted that nursing clinicians frequently engaged in a process of performance self-monitoring that was a balance between feeling competent and feeling uncertain in relation to their own level of clinical competence. On a daily basis, nursing clinicians held an assumption of competence to practise that was based on their ability to act in a situation, receiving positive feedback from others and in the absence of evidence to the contrary. At times feelings of doubt or uncertainty intervened especially in situations that were unfamiliar or challenging or when receiving feedback from others that questioned their own perceptions of competence. The findings of the study provide support for the types of self-monitoring processes that serve to enhance both the relevance of feedback for nurses and the quality of evaluative data regarding ongoing competence.