This article proposes that simulation has potential as a method to validate critical and reflective thinking skills and continued competency of registered nurses. The authors recognize the challenges and benefits for using simulation in assessing competency. Furthermore, the authors stress that the potential use of simulation in competency testing cannot be achieved until educators and researchers acquire the specific knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and recommend policy.

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A n innovative project was created to introduce graduate nursing students in an educational assessment course to item writing and item analysis. The pilot project began with dividing students into teams of 3 to 4 each: each group was assigned the development of a 20-item multiple-choice examination. Examinations were required to use Bloom's Taxonomy and knowledge from selected modules previously completed in the course. The group was given 2 weeks to create the examination and submit drafts of their items to faculty for feedback during the development phase of item writing. The examinations developed by each team were finalized and submitted to an alternate team within the class for testing; each student within a team completed the examination. After students completed their assigned examination, the authoring team conducted an item analysis based on the results of the team that took the examination. The authoring team then identified items that may need to be adjusted based on the guidelines. The item analysis and adjustment were shared with the class via an online discussion, where the group reflected on using the data to adjust questions and students and faculty offered feedback. This multifaceted project was created to assess the student's ability to create, analyze, adjust, and share findings of the multiple-choice item analysis. The project was well received and allowed students to experience what will be expected of them as they enter the workforce as nurse educators.

Nurse educators are faced with the challenge of developing and evaluating learning methods that promote knowledge acquisition, problem solving, and the development of clinical judgment to meet today's expectations of new graduates. Clinical judgment is at the heart of decision making and drives nursing action. It encompasses perceptions and intellectual processing of information through mental operations of reasoning, resulting in appropriate actions. An instructional method, entitled the Critical Difference Assignment, aimed at developing clinical judgment has been developed and piloted at a southwestern university. This instructional method requires students in small groups to engage in intellectual processing of case study information using mental operations of reasoning to discriminate between two case studies through a process of comparing and contrasting the data.

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