More than a Meme: The Dunning-Kruger Effect as an Opportunity for Positive Change in Nursing Education

The Dunning–Kruger Effect (DKE) describes the cognitive bias in which novices tend to overestimate performance or competence while experts tend to underestimate. Those who are lacking in competence do not have the skills to accurately recognize deficient performance. Subjective assessment is used widely in simulation learning and in nursing curricula, yet often without expert feedback and reflective discussions, which can result in mistakes being overlooked and encoded, which could subsequently result in clinical errors. The prevalence of DKE should not be interpreted solely as a deprecation of the use of subjective measures, but rather as an indicator of the need for improving self-reflection, metacognition, and an opportunity for formative feedback.