Master Plan of Nursing Program Evaluation - Essay Example

Introduction Completeness and relevance of the information for learning assessment. Vivian Kuawogai, a curriculum committee member of College of Nursing, has been kind enough to assist and help out fill the grid with the relevant information. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the grid and suggest where there are weaknesses and comment if the grid and follow up are working fine. Some areas in the grid, related to the general academic institution, were not covered in the meeting. Some areas of the grid are definitely not complete, like the Administration, Cognates and Graduate curriculum prerequisites; the things listed in the grid were not discussed during the interview process. However, the assessment can be carried out without those blank spots. The assessment needs to be fit for purpose, and the assessment grid does fit the purpose. Failure is a necessary possibility; a grid has very little value with passing scores only (Hunt, McGee, Gutteridge & Hughes, 2011). For instance the criteria outcome suggests that the college is located in a supportive environment. NCLEX pass rate needs to be at least 1 percent more than that of national passing mark (>80%), which serves the purpose of improving students’ scores. The purpose for having an assessment system in the first place is to improve the learning process, not just fill in the grids. Assessment planning such as the grid developed is an active process that keeps things in check, whether certain procedures and rules are being followed or not, whether the grid is serving the purpose or not. The purpose of the grid is to evaluate the program components. Positive affirmations will help in enhancing the program, fine tuning its components and making the most of tolls or metrics. So keeping view the purpose of this grid, it is complete and the grid boxes that are left out blank are   2. Areas that are not addressed or are weak. How does this inhibit the ability to assess the overall understanding of the outcomes of the learning process? 2. Weaknesses One weakness, which is truly not a weakness, is the data collection tool for Internal frame factors. “Structure of the organization to determine if it is suitable to mission, goal and philosophy. Roles and responsibilities attached to each position in the structure”. By reading the grid, the thought comes to mind that the data collected here for the sole purpose of determining whether the structure of the organization is suitable to goals seems a bit vague. For instance, collecting such information on annual basis seems a bit off as it is not a manufacturing company, this is an educational institute. As suggested in the recommendation section of the paper, developing a quality control department would suit the needs of the school at a very useful scale. It makes sense that such changes are more useful as the course ends (by the end of May); the beginning of an academic year or the period following immediately an accreditation visit is the best to evaluate (Gard, Flannigan & Clusky, 2004), however, what happens after that? This can have the education in a tight deadlock if something that isn’t in alignment with the goals needs to stay with the school for almost a year before being changed. Some areas are comparatively weak while some areas are not addressed properly. For instance, in the row ‘External Factors’, the last cell reads ‘Follow Up Plans’ and the box is suggests that the follow up plans will be made by the same people under the responsible party. This might not sound like a good plan to make follow ups that actually help improve the process or achieve goals in an efficient manner. Where the same people under responsible party are doing the follow up, in depth scrutinizing or analysis is not possible. There needs to be other people available to do this job. Nursing is a sensitive subject and requires understanding at a macro as well at a minute level. The nursing theories developed so far have not all been developed only with the sole purpose of serving the nursing department, many nursing theories have been evolved from other disciplines as well (Keating, 2011). In the above case the responsible party is the Dean of Health Sciences and the Evaluation Committee Facility. The latter does sound like a more accurate group of people to do a more accurate job in assessing and making follow ups, however the Dean does the follow up. Other than the follow ups by the same party, the data finding tools such as employer survey, alumni feedback and community profile do sound credible and efficient sources of information.   3. If you were a program director or Academic Dean, how would you adapt this tool? What would you add/ subtract/ emphasize more? Use the literature to support your views.  3. Recommendations If I am made the academic dean or the program director, I will modify a lot in the grid. First of all, there needs to be a proper team that does the follow up. For instance the grid tools such as the surveys and alumni feedback suggest that there is lack of efficiency as the targets are not being met in the given time frame, so how to accomplish that? This is a follow up on the information collection procedure that would suggest one of the two things; either the targets are unrealistic or there is some inefficiency on the part of the team. In case the targets are unrealistic, the targets need to be revised. As the academic dean, I would keep and maintain a small team of the Quality Control Department, which will serve like an internal auditing team on the education. My plan as the dean at Prince Georges Community College (PGCC) might sound unrealistic, unorthodox even but quality department is necessary. Many teachers and even professors will object to it but in case their class is not performing well in the tests, something needs to be done. I would take a very active part in managing the curriculum content. Here Quality Control Department would also do its job. Why the need to manage the content? It is a fact that faculty as well as the students are besieged with content (Keating, 2011). There is an explosion of informative content and a lot of it is necessary to include in all nursing courses. But here the Quality Control Department will make the difference; somewhere the line needs to be drawn. The faculty, in agreement with QCD, will decide how to manage the curriculum content so that maximum content can be absorbed by the students and not just stay in the book bindings. My suggestions are not alien, and this is not the first time someone has thought of a team to evaluate nursing education; “Having a standing committee with key oversight for the evaluation process is an effective mechanism for program evaluation.” (Gard, Flannigan & Clusky, 2004) 4. Conclusion The grid has been laid out by experts and scholars who are great at assessing nursing colleges and medical institutes. The purpose of an educational institute is not only to educate but to enlighten the students. The nursing assessment grids and procedures have served well in shaping the nursing education, however there is still room for improvement. Incorporating a quality control department even in the nursing education sector would definitely help in improving the performance of students as well as teachers. Sources Gard, C., Flannigan, P., & Clusky, M. (2004). Program evaluation: an ongoing systematic process. The Free Library, Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Program evaluation: an ongoing systematic process.-a0120034637 Hunt, L., McGee, P., Gutteridge, R., & Hughes, M. (2011). Assessment of student nurses in practice: A comparison of theoretical and practical assessment results in england. Elsevier, Retrieved from http://www.wlv.ac.uk/pdf/Assessment of student nurses in practice.pdf Keating, S. B. (2011). Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing. (2nd ed.). New York: Springer. Read More