Mixed Methods Studies: A Foundation for Primary Care Research, Essay Example

There is a relatively high impact of external state and national bodies on program/unit evaluation, as both are governing bodies that must ensure that nursing standards must be met. It is the responsibility of hospitals and other healthcare facilities to ensure that their healthcare professionals receive the training necessary to enable compliance. However, nurses must also ensure that they are able to master the training and educational materials that are provided to them and to work above and beyond the presented standards on a daily basis. It would be unethical for nurses to avoid having a thorough understanding of this information, as it was designed primarily to protect patients and uphold the trust that all patients have in the field.

A majority of nursing education research that has been conducted has determined that nursing programs should be evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative data (Stavropoulou et al., 2012).Although the elements that are addressed in the evaluation of a particular program or unit vary depending upon the level of the program and its governing body, properties that should be analyzed for all programs involve the degree of innovation in program design, the use of technology, student opinion, professor opinion, student participation, performance scores on standardized assessments, and evaluation of student interactions with both real and staged cases. Assessments of both knowledge and understanding and a practical application of these skills is necessary for this purpose (Rhodes et al., 2012).

To qualitatively evaluate a nursing program, surveys and observations can be utilized to assess student opinion and skills. To quantitatively evaluate a nursing program, surveys and examinations that assess student performance and success can be issued and studied. If quantitative methods are used for this purpose, it would be useful to analyze performance trends that occur over time in addition to specific changes that occur in these trends in response to specific education interventions (Miller, 2011).

All nursing and program units should be consistently evaluated to determine if changes are necessary. Therefore, there should not be a period of time in which the program is not being evaluated. Teaching observations should be ongoing, and test scores and overall class performance should be gathered for study every 3 – 4 months. Thus, nursing education programs should establish an ongoing timeframe to determine when scores will be collected and the manner in which they will be evaluated to ensure consistency. Findings from the evaluation can be utilized to determine which interventions are necessary to facilitate program improvement.

While the university administration serves as the leadership for this evaluation process, it is necessary for all nursing educators to be involved and contribute to the findings. Ultimately, these findings will be used by both of these groups to ensure that student understanding and performance increases, so it is necessary to involve both parties throughout the evaluation. The goal of the research overall is to change the current practices in nursing education and these changes should serve as the basis for further change in the future. Overall, it is important to treat research in nursing education similarly to how all research in the field is conducted. All practices should be evidence based, and it is the responsibility of the administrators and educators to ensure that enough data can be generated to either confirm or refute common practices (Borkan, 2004).

Resources

Borkan JM. (2004). Mixed Methods Studies: A Foundation for Primary Care Research. Annals of Family Medicine, 2(1): 4–6.

Miller WR. (2011). Qualitative Research Findings as Evidence: Utility in Nursing Practice. Clin Nurse Spec., 24(4): 191–193.

Rhodes ML, Meyers CC, Underhill ML. (2012). Evaluation outcomes of a dedicated education unit in a baccalaureate nursing program.J Prof Nurs, 28(4):223-30.

Stavropoulou A, Kelesi M. (2012). Concepts and methods of evaluation in nursing education – a  methodological challenge. Health Science Journal. Retrieved from http://www.hsj.gr/volume6/issue1/612.pdf