Evaluation is an essential process within higher education nursing curricula. A universal evaluation tool that could be utilized by a multi-leveled baccalaureate nursing program which would provide nursing faculty the ability to comprehensively and systematically accrue, organize, measure, analyze, and trend student cohort outcomes and perceptions over time has not existed. Nursing curriculum evaluation has been a challenging, but essential process for nursing faculty to discover if the nursing program is fulfilling its purpose and aptly preparing students for today’s practice. Following the simple and powerful framework of Alexander W. Astin’s input-environment-outcome (I-E-O) model, which guides assessment activities within higher education, the Evaluative Structure Package (ESP) was created. The ESP is use of informatics in nursing educational programs to evaluate standard outcomes, perceptions, and produce reports. The ESP collaboratively employs multiple computer software programs to systematically collect, store, analyze, and report cohort outcomes and perceptions, which are related to the nursing student’s educational journey, over the course of time and report the findings. A methodological design was the basis for the conception, development, and evaluation of the ESP. Through testing of six years of previously collected unidentifiable student data, the ESP was evaluated for usefulness, organization, and trending. The ESP can be applied and tailored to any multi-leveled baccalaureate nursing curriculum interested in highly organized program evaluation data collection, management, analysis, and trending of, but not limited to, the national curriculum standards of critical thinking, communication, assessment, and nursing intervention, as well as student’s affective experience within nursing programs.
Session #1223 - Graduate Student Poster Session
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)