Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
Research peer-reviewed sources that discuss the importance of assessment and evaluation in nursing education and health care organizations as a whole
Nursing education and healthcare practice are crucial and need constant quality improvement. Evaluation and assessment are key components of nursing education and healthcare practice since they are concerned with quality appraisal and revealing the need for improvement (Khodaveisi, Pazargadi, Yaghmaei, & Bikmoradi, 2012).
As such, continuous, systematic, and frequent assessments should be done on nursing students and nursing practitioners by accreditation bodies, governments, nurse educators, and other pertinent stakeholders, including peer students (Khodaveisi, Pazargadi, Yaghmaei, & Bikmoradi, 2012; Mehrdad, Bigdeli, & Ebrahimi, 2012).
This paper discusses key elements of evaluation and assessment in nursing education and healthcare organization, which include the roles of evaluation, how they are carried out, and the consequences of not carrying out assessment and evaluation. Moreover, a students experience with an assessment and evaluation framework is described.
The Role Assessment and Evaluation Play in Nursing Education and Healthcare Organization
Assessing and evaluating nursing students is vital. Mehrdad et al. (2012) indicated that assessment and evaluation provide judgments on the level of skills and aptitude of practitioners and students. Nurse students and practitioners should possess certain skills and requirements for them to meet personal and organizational goals, which oftentimes include provisions of optimal care while augmenting clinical outcomes, in efficacy and effectiveness.
As such, evaluation and assessment are the surest ways of judging skills such as interpersonal communication, problem-solving abilities, and professional predispositions (Mehrdad et al., 2012).
Quality in nursing education and healthcare organization is significantly important since quality determines outcomes. Assessment and evaluation play critical roles in measuring quality in healthcare settings. Accrediting bodies, government, medical associations, and other stakeholders provide sets of standards upon which nursing students and practitioners should maintain (Khodaveisi et al., 2012).
Evaluation and assessment provide the chance to judge whether nurses comply with the set standards. In cases where nurses fall short of the expectations, evaluation and assessment play the role in the improving of quality in care provision (Khodaveisi et al., 2012).
In medical settings and nursing schools, promotions and upward mobility among nurses should be done according to merit and with extreme caution. As such, duties and responsibilities should be given to deserving practitioners (Adib-Hajbaghery & Safa, 2013).
Moreover, nursing education is made up of more than one level starting from the undergraduate level to Ph.D. (Khodaveisi, Pazargadi, Yaghmaei, & Bikmoradi, 2012; Adib-Hajbaghery & Safa, 2013). Before a nurse is promoted or before a nursing student moves from one level of learning to another, assessment and evaluation should be carried out. In addition, evaluation and assessment are vital for the issuance of certificates of practice among nurses (Adib-Hajbaghery & Safa, 2013; Khodaveisi, Pazargadi, Yaghmaei, & Bikmoradi, 2012).
Adib-Hajbaghery and Safa (2013) asserted that assessment and evaluation are vital elements for judging proficiency, the efficiency of healthcare structures, educational programs and curricular, supervisory systems and performance. Moreover, assessment is significant in clarifying nurses job descriptions.
Koharchik, Weideman, Walters, and Hardy, (2015) argue that there is a need for a nursing student to get information on their progress towards meeting course requirements.
Moreover, it is important that nursing educators provide positive feedbacks on progresses in clinical courses. As such, evaluation and assessment are crucial in providing positive, honest, appropriate, and well-timed criticisms.
A Critic of the Role of Assessment and Evaluation
As discussed above, it is evident that assessment and evaluation are important and play important roles including determining the level of skills and professional competencies among nurses, judging the quality of care, evaluating the efficacy of healthcare structures, and determining promotion and educational levels (Adib-Hajbaghery & Safa, 2013; Khodaveisi, Pazargadi, Yaghmaei, & Bikmoradi, 2012; Mehrdad, Bigdeli, & Ebrahimi, 2012).
Therefore, it is prudent for nursing schools and healthcare organizations to use assessment and evaluation as tools to make these critical determinations and judgments.
Nevertheless, it is important that evaluation and assessment are done in the most effective and efficient manners while maintaining scientific standards. Failing to adhere to set standards of assessment and evaluation may negatively influence their roles in nursing education and practice.
In some healthcare systems, assessments and evaluations in nursing education and healthcare organizations do not meet basic standards and, therefore, their roles are criticized negatively.
One of the roles of evaluation that has been criticized is the function of promotion. This role may attract external interest and unwarranted interference. In addition, the roles may be negatively affected if they are done irregularly, incompletely, and temporarily (Khodaveisi, Pazargadi, Yaghmaei, & Bikmoradi, 2012).
How Assessments and Evaluation Are Achieved
Assessment and evaluation are achieved in many ways and using different approaches. In some healthcare systems, they are achieved through two broad categories, including the internal techniques and the external methods.
Specific schools and healthcare organizations carry out internal evaluations. As such, the faculty members under various departments set the standards for assessment and evaluation and subject the nursing students to tests. The reporting and feedback are done within the institutions.
On the other hand, assessment and evaluation can be done from external stakeholders. External evaluation is achieved through involving accrediting bodies, government ministries, and other key stakeholders who set certain standards that nursing students and practitioners should meet.
Moreover, assessment and evaluation could be achieved through formative and summative techniques. While formative techniques involve time-to-time assessment and evaluation, summative methods are applied at the end of an academic period or at the end of a course (Koharchik, Weideman, Walters, & Hardy, 2015).
The Consequences of Skipping Assessment and Evaluation in an Academic Process
It is apparent that assessment and evaluation are critical in the nursing academic processes. As such, skipping the element of evaluation and assessment adversely affects outcomes in nursing schools and nursing practice.
First, nursing students will not get the feedback they need in understanding their progress in their courses as suggested by Koharchik, Weideman, Walters, and Hardy (2015). Without feedback, nursing students will study with no direction and this may negatively affect their practice since nursing is evidence-based.
Second, lack of evaluation and assessment in nursing schools compromises standards and quality. Compromised quality and standards could negatively influence care delivery and consequently result in poor medical outcomes. Lastly, lack of evaluation could result in nurses graduating with no basic skills.
An individual Experience with An Evaluator
In my nursing course, I have many experiences with educational assessments. One of my most memorable involvement was through an assessment performed before the opening of the Cancer Institute and it was administered based on what we had been taught.
The assessment involved testing on the ability to master nursing concepts, current knowledge, and other pertinent skills and information in nursing practice. Moreover, the assessment entailed testing the skills on serving and providing care for the specific population.
The experience was quite positive since the test administrator gave me a relevant and positive feedback. As such, I was able to apprehend my progress and I developed new skills to augment my practice.
Research various evaluation designs, frameworks, and models
References
Adib-Hajbaghery, M., & Safa, A. (2013). Nurses evaluation of their use and mastery in health assessment skills: selected Irans hospitals. Nursing and Midwifery Studies, 2(1), 39-43.
Cerezo, P. G., Galceran, M. S., Soriano, M. G., Camps, L. M., & Moral, J. L. (2014). Design and evaluation of an educational course in cultural competence for nursing. Social and Behavioral Sciences 132(2014), 262-268. Web.
Hayes, H., Parchman, M. L., & Howard, R. (2012). A logic model framework for evaluation and planning in a primary care practice-based research network (PBRN). Journal of American Board Fam Medicine, 24(5), 576582. Web.
Jauregui, E., Pacheco, A. M., Soltero, E. G., OConnor, T. M., Castro, C. M., Estabrooks, P. A.,& Lee, R. E. (2015). Using the RE-AIM framework to evaluate physical activity public health programs in México. BMC Public Health, 15(162),. Web.
Khodaveisi, M., Pazargadi, M., Yaghmaei, F., & Bikmoradi, A. (2012). Identifying challenges for effective evaluation in nursing education: A qualitative study. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 17(7), 710717.
Koharchik, L., Weideman, Y. L., Walters, C. A., & Hardy, E. (2015). Evaluating nursing students clinical performance. American Journal of Nursing, 115(10), 64-67.
Mansour, M., Skull, A., & Parker, M. (2015). Evaluation of World Health Organization multi-professional patient safety curriculum topics in nursing education: Pre-test, post-test, none-experimental study. Journal of Profesional Nursing, 31(5), 432-439. Web.
Mehrdad, N., Bigdeli, S., & Ebrahimi, H. (2012). A Comparative Study on Self, Peer and Teacher Evaluation to Evaluate Clinical Skills of Nursing Students. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47(2012), 1847-1852. Web.
Nadrian, H., Morowatisharifabad, M., & Bahmanpour, K. (2011). Development of a Rheumatoid Arthritis Education Program using the PRECEDE_PROCEED Model. Health Promotion Perspectives, 1(2), 118-29. Web.
Ott, M., Baca, E., Cisneros, J., & Bates, E. (2014). A competency-based approach to the masters degree preparation of higher education professionals. Journal of Case Studies in Accreditation and Assessment, 4, 1-19.
Rozmus, C. L., Jones, D., Meyers, S., Hercules, P., & Schumann, R. (2014). Pacesetter curriculum: An experimental design evaluation of a clinical immersion model for nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 4(6), 60-68.
Zhang, G., Zeller, N., Griffith, R., Metcalf, D., Williams, J., Shea, C., & Misulis, K. (2011). Using the context, input, process, and product evaluation model (CIPP) as a comprehensive framework to guide the planning, implementation, and assessment of service-learning programs. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 15(4), 57-87.
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.