Requirements for Effective Evaluation in Nursing Education: a Qualitative Study

Introduction: There are many studies about evaluation in nursing education and its problems in Iran, but no study has been reported on the requirements for effective evaluation. This study aimed to explore academic managers' perceptions about requirements for effective evaluation in nursing education in Iran. Methods: This qualitative study was performed in year 2010. Semistructured individual interviews were arranged for 21 academic nursing managers and experts. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcriptions were analyzed using content analysis method. Results: Requirements for effective evaluation emerged in three categories and each category included some themes: input issues (infrastructure requirements, consideration of appropriate evaluation policies and approaches, revision of evaluation tools, consideration of students admission criteria, continuous assessment of students, teachers’ competence, comprehensive evaluation of curricula) process issues (standardization of objectives, revision of evaluation tools, establishment of follow-up committees, improvement of evaluators’ conditions, consideration of stakeholders’ expectations, and improvement in evaluation of theoretical and clinical training), and output issues (effective evaluation of students’ academic achievement, maintaining contact with alumni, alumni competence, continuing education for alumni, academic progress of alumni, awareness of occupational situation, work licensure, and graduates’ impact on society). Conclusion: There are numerous requirements for making nursing evaluations effective. Providing these requirements in the three categories of educational inputs, processes and outputs may improve the effectiveness of current evaluations.Also further studies are essential to design an efficient evaluation system for nursing education.