Clinical assessor's experiences of assessing undergraduate nursing and midwifery students who underperform on clinical placement: A qualitative systematic review and meta-summary.

Aim: To summarise the qualitative evidence exploring the clinical assessor's experience of assessing undergraduate nursing and midwifery students who underperform on clinical placement.

Design: A qualitative systematic review and meta-summary was undertaken.

Data Source: Database searches included CINAHL Plus with full text; Academic Search Complete; MEDLINE; PsycARTICLES; PsychINFO; Social Sciences Full text; SocINDEX with Full Text; ERIC; Pubmed; Scopus and Web of Science.

Review Method: Included studies were appraised using the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) tool. A meta-summary was conducted using Sandelowski & Barroso's method.

Results: The review included 18 studies reported across 25 papers. Eight themes and 37 thematic sentences were created from 403 extracted findings.

Conclusion: The management of underperformance on clinical placement by undergraduate nursing and midwifery students presents a challenge for those nurses and midwives, working on the frontline of patient care, who also take on the role of clinical assessor. Addressing these challenges is essential to support the assessor and the student. Sharing of the decision making with a colleague when there is evidence of underperformance could address many of the difficulties experienced by the clinical assessor.