One good way to assess students' understanding and memorization of concepts is through testing. Multiple-choice and short-answer tests are excellent ways to test their ability to recall the information. In order to help them retain it, you may want to do weekly quizzes that cover material back to the beginning of the semester. This will motivate your students to learn the information in a way that they will be able to recall later, and prevent them from cramming and forgetting pertinent information. If at all possible, write out the questions on the board as they will be phrased on the exams to help your students prepare for them.
Essay questions on tests are a good way to test your students' understanding of concepts and theories. These questions are good for things like the different attitudes towards end-of-life care, pain treatment, and medical-intervention policies. Depending on the complexity of the question, you can expect that students take a paragraph to several pages in order to answer the question.
Since many of the procedures that a nurse will perform will be on patients, it is important that the nursing students be able to demonstrate the actual skills involved. Much of this will be done through clinical work, but you may also include it as a portion of your test for class. Clinical work gives the students the opportunity to apply what they are learning, and to practice patient care. You can also have demonstrations in class using other classmates or dummies depending on the procedures. Although a certain number of hours is required in clinical work, it is important to be sure that your students have also mastered the skills that they need to each semester.
Term papers are another great way to assess your students' understanding of specific topics. Term papers can teach them the importance of staying up to date on topics within the field. They can assess your students' ability to understand raw data and reports and then apply it to their nursing knowledge. A term paper may deal with a specific topic or a theory that involves medical care.