Item Writing for Nurse Educators

Evaluation of student performance by examination is critical in nursing education, from undergraduate to continuing education programs. Many faculty have reported learning the item writing process in graduate programs, but it is often lost or not reused. Recent research reports nursing faculty using textbook questions that have not been validated and security of the questions have been compromised. A nursing education profession should have the ability to develop items to validate that learning has occurred. The skill is essential to any professional to evaluate the effectiveness of learning.