Program Assessment

Evidence-based practice is an approach that “enables clinicians to provide the highest quality of care in meeting the multifaceted needs of their patients and families”. When providers know how to find, critically appraise, and use best evidence, and when patients are confident that providers are using evidence-based care to provide best practice, optimal outcomes are achieved for all (Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt, 2005).
This concept, as we have learned and applied it within a clinical system as patient caregivers, is one that must be applied within an educational system. Just as in clinical environments, the educational system is experiencing new trends and demands from both within and without. Technological advances, the immediate availability of information, changing student demographics and diversity, have required faculty to assess their impact on student learning and outcomes. As a clinical situation must be an environment that promotes health, an educational system must be an environment to promote learning. The collaboration of faculty with regard to the development of “courses and curricula to systematically help students synthesize, practice, and develop increasingly complex ideas, skills, and values” (Allen, 2004, p.2) is imperative. This is accomplished through ongoing program assessment and planning. Program assessment is best understood in this context as “best practice in higher education” (Allen, 2004, p.2).
The six steps of an assessment program are:

• develop learning objectives
• check for alignment between curriculum and objectives
• develop an assessment plan
• collect assessment data
• use of results to improve the program
• examine the assessment process and correct as needed (Allen, 2004, p.55).

The assessment plan describes how learning objectives will be assessed, and should describe a process that that will generate meaningful data, and is manageable and sustainable over time (Allen, 2004, p.10).
An assessment plan must be of a manageable size and scale. All objectives would be examined over a continuum, beginning with those that are generally well mastered by students and progressing toward the more challenging objectives. The assessment plan should remain focused on student learning as the motivation for program change. Evidence found through data collection and assessment must be collected with all ethical considerations, should be tested for reliability and validity, and subject to quality assurance. Reliable and valid data may then be used for subsequent decision-making and change. Faculty reflection on data should be used to respond to deficiencies in meeting objectives, as well as to lead to program improvement. The assessment plan should always include the examination of the assessment process (Allen, 2004,p.57). As a mission may change, so may the originally stated objectives, and assessment plans may need to change. The process of plan implementation is in and of itself an ongoing learning experience for those implementing it.
The components of an assessment plan are directed at answering the questions who, what, when, where, and how:

• WHO will do WHAT
• WHEN they will do it
• WHERE and HOW will they us the information that is collected (Allen, 2004).

General organization of an assessment plan as described by Allen involves:

• creating a matrix listing learning objectives
• description of how the objectives align with the curriculum in place
• measures of assessment
• time frame for assessment
• and who will be involved

A supplemental summary of data related to each objective and/or an impact statement may be provided later. The plan must employ a strategy to assess student mastery of the stated objectives. The chosen strategy must give an “unambiguous assessment of the relevant learning objective”(Allen, 2004, p.58), so as to provide results that give useful information about the program. The areas of content (knowledge students acquire), process (student ability to apply knowledge critically), and outcome (ability to show combination of content and new application of knowledge), should be assessed, with direct and/or indirect strategies used in implementing the assessment plan.

Currently, my clinical placement is at an undergraduate nursing program. As my area of interest is nursing in the community, I would like to focus on the curriculum with regard to student preparation for servicing this population. As measures of assessment must be able to yield desired and useable data relative to the question being asked or the objective being evaluated, I think direct assessment/analysis of a community based student project over the course of a semester (based on a learned concept) would be an appropriate way to assess understanding of objectives. This would illustrate the ability of a student to apply learned knowledge to meet the objectives of nursing community-based clients.

• Data from surveys of students with regard to their own perceptions of self-efficacy in caring for community-based clients may also be a measure of student ability to meet objectives, as well as the relativity of curriculum content to “real world” environments.
• Survey data of community mentors/preceptors regarding student performance may be assessed as indirect information regarding students learning needs to meet objectives, as well as address deficiencies in course content.
• The use of technology as an adjunct to traditional education is a given in 2006, and web-assisted evaluation tools would also be appropriate. The data gained through this assessment plan would be used to evaluate course objectives relative to curriculum and a student’s ability to meet these objectives, and used to make appropriate change to enhance learning.
  Program assessment and planning is time consuming, but is a necessary and indispensable tool to keep an educational system meaningful and viable in a competitive environment. A meaningful, manageable and sustainable plan will work toward the ultimate goal of improved student learning.
  
  References:
  Allen, M.J. (2004). Assessing Academic Programs in Higher Education. Boston, Mass.: Anker
  Melnyk, B.M. & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2005). Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and
  Healthcare. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins