Student Outcomes Evaluation in Nursing Education
Student Outcomes Evaluation in Nursing Education, Employer Outcomes Graduate Employment Rates and Satisfaction in Nursing Education.
Student Outcomes Evaluation in Nursing Education
Student outcomes are measured at multiple levels in the program of learning. Student learning outcomes deal with attributes of the learner that demonstrate achievement of program goals. Examples include critical thinking, communication, and therapeutic interventions. Other areas of measurement of learner outcomes occur at the course, clinical practice, and classroom levels.
Assessment of learner outcomes at the broad program level usually involves aggregate data designed to examine general measures of learner success. At this level, one can communicate to the public the extent to which one is preparing well-educated and competent practitioners to meet the human resource needs of the community.
Of particular interest are the graduation and retention rates in each program within the school. A clear understanding of the graduation and retention rates will influence decisions about recruitment and retention methods in the future. The state is interested in the graduation rate from the perspectives of human resource flow and as a measure of return on investment in the educational program.
Tracking graduation rates is a measure of the productivity of a program and may provide information about the program itself. A low graduation rate or high attrition rate can indicate problems with admission criteria, the curriculum, or teaching effectiveness and mentoring of students.
It is useful to track the absolute attrition of individuals over time, as well as to document the number of graduates compared with the number of program entrants by graduation year. This allows the program to track students who are readmitted and who eventually graduate.
In programs with high numbers of adult students, there may be a larger number of students who leave the program because of family problems or job-related issues. They may return and graduate at a later date. Thus a given class, when defined by the admission enrollment, may have a lower attrition rate than a class defined by numbers admitted and numbers graduated in a defined expected time span for program completion
Many programs use the pass rate on national licensing examinations or certification examinations as a measure of program success. The number of graduates licensed or certified to practice in a given area is seen as a measure of production of qualified human resources. Pass rates that are lower than the benchmark set by the school or set by approval or accreditation bodies may be an indication of an issue in the nursing program such as problems with the curriculum.
However, variables other than the program of learning, such as individual preparation or test anxiety, may also influence a graduate’s performance on the examination. Certainly, a school should be concerned if the pass rate falls below reasonable norms, and additional assessment measures should be initiated to attempt to determine what issues may be involved and what might be done to improve those concerns.
There may be issues involved that are not under the control of the nursing program. Employment rate is an aggregate measure of product demand. The extent to which the graduates are able to find employment may provide both marketing data and a broad measure of employer satisfaction with the product a program produces.
Less information may be gleamed in a tight market in which demand exceeds supply. When the demand is high, employment rates may be more an indication of need than selective employment based on the quality of the applicant. When the supply exceeds the demand, the specific applicants the employer selects may provide stronger data.
If the graduates of a given program are not in demand or are not marketable, the nursing program should be evaluated to determine if the reason for the decreased marketability is related to the quality of the graduate and the curriculum. Obtaining data from potential and current employers may be useful. Ultimately, the viability of the program may be questioned.
Employer Outcomes Graduate Employment Rates and Satisfaction in Nursing Education
Employer surveys may provide a means to determine the extent to which the consumer believes the graduate of the program has the skills necessary to meet employment expectations. Feedback from employers provides useful data for program review. It is difficult to obtain good response rates from employer surveys. Brevity and ease of completion are key to a high response rate.
This is of particular importance during a time of work redesign and increasing demands on the time of employers in health care. Extensive survey tools designed for each program with long lists of questions about skills to which the individual is asked to respond are less likely to be completed. Respondents are more likely to reply to fewer questions that have been well developed to provide useful information.
Other avenues for gathering data may be useful such as focus groups made up of employers. Gathering data related to several areas is of particular interest. Brief demographic information about the nature of the agency is helpful in learning which settings use the program graduates. Expressed concerns or comments may be specific to a given setting.
Whether the employer hires graduates of the program and to what extent are other areas of interest. It is useful to know whether an employer would hire more graduates of the program if they were available. When questions about satisfaction with particular abilities are asked, it is helpful to state them in broad terms rather than providing the traditional laundry list of individual skills.
For example, data about satisfaction may be linked to the extent to which an employer believes the graduates of the program are able to problem solve, think critically, resolve conflicts, communicate effectively, use resources efficiently, and perform essential psychomotor skills safely.
These and other broad classifications of behaviors can be selected on the basis of program outcome expectations. Provision of space for comments allows for the addition of qualitative information and the opportunity to identify any specific areas of concern. Another issue in many employer surveys is the identification of which stakeholders are in the best position to respond to particular questions.
Although an administrator may be able to respond more quickly and accurately to demographic questions and inquiries about the number of graduates employed, he or she may not be in the best position to respond to questions about the skills and abilities of graduates.
The administrator may respond according to perceptions based on factors other than direct observation. Some employers delegate completion of the survey. Therefore, it is helpful to request information about the respondent in the cover letter that accompanies the survey.
For example, one might ask for the title of the respondent as a guide for determining how likely he or she is to be in a position of interacting directly with graduates. Some schools send employer surveys to graduates and request that they forward the surveys to their immediate supervisors for completion.
This practice is problematic in that it usually results in a low return rate and a completed survey often reflects a respondent’s reaction to an individual graduate rather than the aggregate of program graduates he or she has observed.
Another method of obtaining ongoing feedback about the graduates of a program is to establish an advisory committee of consumers from agencies that typically employ program alumni. Such committees often provide advice and counsel on multiple matters, but satisfaction with the product and advice about the changing needs of the marketplace are traditional agenda items for such a group.