Best practices of assessment of the affective domain in nursing: an integrated literature review

Abstract

Background: The teaching and assessment of the affective domain is often overlooked and more emphasis is placed on the cognitive and psychomotor domain. By identifying and critically evaluating the best practices of the most effective approaches to teach and assess the affective domain the study will improve the professional values and competencies of nurses and other multidisciplinary professions in the health system.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore the most effective approaches to teach and assess the affective domain in order to improve the assessment of competencies of nursing students.

Design: An integrative review using the Whittemore and Knafl (2005) framework. These stages included problem identification, literature search, data evaluation, data analysis and presentation of findings.

Methods: Literature search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest and EBSCO host – CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE and SCIENCE DIRECT were used to identify 20 articles used in this study.

Results: The synthesis of review findings on the best approach for teaching and assessing the affective domain of learning among nurses resulted in three (3) themes: teaching, assessment and the impact on both the teacher and student.