Determining Performance Evaluation Indicators of Military Nurses in Iran: A Multi-Stage Study

Background and Aim: Improving the performance appraisal system in the armed forces health care system is one of the challenges for managers in this field. Therefore, this study aimed to develop performance evaluation indicators of nurses working in military medical centers in Iran. Methods: The present study is an applied and multi-stage research that was conducted in three general phases during the years 2020-2021 in military medical centers of Iran. Participants included 36 experts in the field of nursing. Library study, purposive sampling, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, semi-open questionnaire, expert panel meetings, and the Delphi method were used to collect data. Data were also analyzed by qualitative content analysis and Graneheim and Lundman's proposed steps. The importance of the identified criteria was determined through a pairwise comparison questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale and by fuzzy hierarchical analysis method in Matlab software. Results: Based on the results of this study, 33 performance criteria for military nurses in four categories of special conditions competencies (10 indicators), military competencies (7 indicators), command and leadership competencies (4 indicators), and nursing's basic competencies (12 indicators) were identified by experts, and the importance of each was determined. Conclusion: The study results showed that special conditions competencies and basic nursing competencies are more important than other groups in the military nurses' performance evaluation. Therefore, it is suggested that the identified indicators in this study can be used in macro-management decisions in the fields of education, training, and performance management of military nurses.