Barriers to Evaluation: a Qualitative Study of Sexual Health Nurses - Essay Example

Most people seek to improve themselves in both personal and professional aspects. In some cases, they do self-reflection, turning inwards into themselves to analyze their strengths, weaknesses, where they have gone wrong, and what they could have done to make things right. In some companies, performance appraisals are scheduled periodically, and that time frame is usually dreaded not only by those being evaluated but even the evaluators. It can be a very trying time at the workplace. However, the process of evaluation proves to be an essential part of growth and development in order to improve oneself and the service provided.

In medical services, evaluation is necessary to check on the quality of care and service rendered by health professionals. This not only ensures that doctors, nurses, and other health professionals are highly skilled and display proper care to their patients but also guarantees that patients are adequately cared for and that their health needs are met to their satisfaction.

The Masters in Public Health (MPH) program, for one, ascribes Evaluation as one of its core modules. Still, most nurses hold the belief that evaluation is more for medical doctors than for them (REF).
1.1 Statement of the Research Problem
This study shall focus on evaluation in sexual health because of its relevance. According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA, 2011), the rates of sexually transmitted infections are continually rising. The research intends to find out how often and in what context sexual health services are evaluated by the nurses. How do nurses view evaluation? Is there anything else that can be done? Is evaluation a cultural more than a teaching issue? Since nurses nowadays take on more roles including those previously held by doctors, it is important for them to be accustomed to evaluation (REF). Barriers to evaluation practice shall likewise be investigated within the chosen group of participants of the study.
1.2 Objectives of the Study
The following are the set objectives that this study intends to meet:
1.2.1 To explore the factors influencing evaluation practice within a sexual health services setting
1.2.2 To explore nurses’ knowledge and skills in evaluation and identify any skills gaps that act as a barrier to conducting evaluation
1.2.3 To identify systems-level and organizational barriers faced by nurses who conduct evaluations
1.2.4 To make recommendations on how best nurses can overcome barriers to evaluation within a sexual health services setting.

This chapter discusses pertinent information on evaluation, particularly in nursing. It also discusses how the area of sexual health must be evaluated in terms of competencies that must be displayed by nurses and health care practitioners. It ends with a concise discussion of how governance in nursing must be shared by both the nurses and management in order to deliver better nursing service to patients.

Before this literature review was completed, the required information was collected through the use of electronic databases such as internet sources, journals, past research articles, reports, and official statistics, or library materials such as books (Hek & Moule, 2006). This research made full use of available literature in online library databases. Logging on to EBSCOHOST, the search words evaluation, nursing practices, professional performance, sexual health, and other related keywords were used to search for related materials.