Performance Evaluation of Nursing Faculty Members: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Performance evaluation (PE) of nurse faculty members is complicated and difficult but seems necessary. Deans of the faculties, their educational assistants, and faculty member nurses are responsible for planning, performing, and revising evaluation. Finding their common views in developing PE is of special importance. The aim of this study was to elucidate and describe PE of nurse faculty members. Methods: In this qualitative study, the required data was gathered through two methods of semi-structured interview with experts and examining the existing policies, procedures, and evaluation documents. Totally, the contents of 22 individual interviews and 26 series of subject materials went under qualitative content analysis using arbitrary approach. Purposive sampling and census methods were used for selecting the interviewees and evaluation documents, respectively. Results: Participants had a wide-ranging perspective toward the PE of faculty member nurses. Having the analysis done, these perspectives and the content of the existing documents were placed in three major themes: individual qualifications of faculty member, performance process, and practice outcome. The items which were not in the concept of PE but had an effect on it were categorized as organizational factors. Conclusion: Findings of the current study confirms the suggestions of the experts, who agree a combination of individual attributes, behavior, and result-based systems for PE. But, it considers the qualifications of faculty members which are improvable and modifiable instead of individual attributes. Besides, paying attention to some organizational factors which affect PE is a matter of importance