Measures of graduate entry nursing student program experiences: A scoping review

Volume 20, Issue 4, October 2025, Pages e1308-e1314

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Accurate measurement of student experiences relies on valid reliable measures.

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Contexts, domains and nursing student experience measures identified.

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Informs instrument selection for measuring nursing student experiences.

AbstractObjective

Characterize the types of graduate entry nursing student experiences measured and the instruments used to measure these experiences.

Data sources

Nine electronic bibliographic databases.

Review methods

Databases were searched for published articles and theses reporting development, psychometric properties, or use of a quantitative measure of experience in accelerated second-degree entry to nursing students. Articles and theses were exported, deduped, dual screened, then data extracted, charted and analyzed.

Results

Sixty-three publications met inclusion criteria; most were peer reviewed journal articles from United States of America. Domains of student experience measured encompassed overall program, simulation, clinical education models, stress, coping and support, and sub-programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction. More than half of studies used to exist measures, mostly assessing stress or support, reporting limited details regarding validity and reliability.

Conclusions

Measurement of student experiences is essential to understanding and improving quality of education programs. This review characterized the range of experiences measured, and instruments used. The synthesis provides educational programs, clinicians, and researchers an opportunity to avoid unnecessary measure development and research duplication.

Scoping review protocol registrationTweetable abstract

measures of experience in second-degree accelerated nursing students #experiences #metrics.

Reporting method

PRISMA-ScR.

Graphical Abstract Image, graphical abstract