The responsiveness and minimal detective change of the disciplinary TECO in nursing students of Sapienza University of Rome: a cross sectional study

The objective of this study is to assess whether Disciplinary-Test of Competences (TECO-D) is able to assess the changes of students in nursing courses. The secondary objective is to evaluate the minimal detective change with TECO-D. The cohort examined in 2017 was divided into three sub-populations: students enrolled in 2017 (I year of course); students enrolled in 2016 (II-year course), students enrolled in 2015 (III year course). In 2018, at the second administration of the test, the students enrolled in 2017 attended the second year of the course, the students enrolled in 2016 attended the third year of the course and the students enrolled in 2015 were undergraduates. The Cronbach’s Alpha resulted from administration 2018 showed a value of 0.90. This result is statistically significant. The evaluation of the responsiveness evaluated by t-test for paired samples showed statistically significant data for students enrolled in 2017 (I year of course) and 2016 (II year of course), while data not statistically significant for students enrolled in 2015 (III year of course). The present study has shown that Test of Competences (TECO) is an excellent tool for assessing skills for students in nursing degree courses. These results provide an additional element for Italian universities for assessing competences in nursing degree courses.