Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop and test a scoring tool designed to evaluate nurses of any experience level while participating in neonatal resuscitation (NRP).|Background: Simulation training is becoming an accepted training method in hospitals. Scoring tools for simulation currently available in the literature are designed for student or novice nurses. Staff nurses with varying years of experience are participating in simulation, but there are currently no tools to score them or quantify their abilities.|Sample/Setting: The setting was the neonatal intensive care unit at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, California. The tool was tested for inter-rater reliability by observing six nurses participating in NRP.|Methods: The Assessment of Clinical Expertise in Simulation (ACES) tool was developed based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. The tool was reviewed by four NRP instructors for face validity and then tested by four NRP instructors to determine inter-rater reliability.|Results: The validity of the tool based on expert review had a CVI of 0.99 for clarity and 1.00 for relevance. The inter-rater reliability results were low per item, but the total scores showed minimal variance.|Conclusion: The ACES tool is valid but has conflicting inter-rater reliability results. Revisions and further analysis of the tool may be necessary prior to any further testing or implementation of the tool. If in the future the tool is shown to be valid and reliable, the next recommended stage would be to apply the tool to assess NICU nurses performing NRP to further evaluate content validity of the tool.