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Comprehensive practicum evaluation across nursing program.

With the inception of a new competency-based nursing curriculum, faculty in a baccalaureate nursing program developed a comprehensive laboratory and clinical evaluation program aimed at progressive, criterion-based evaluation across four semesters of the nursing program. This article provides background for the development of the program, the resources needed, and specific evaluation activities for the four semesters targeted. Course content and program year competencies, progressively built from one semester to the next, guided the design of the practicum evaluations. Faculty report satisfaction with the ability of this program to determine whether student performance is consistent with competency achievement. Refinements have been made to alleviate student stress and evaluator consistency.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Time preference, the discounted utility model and health.

The constant rate discounted utility model is commonly used to represent intertemporal preferences in health care program evaluations. This paper examines the appropriateness of this model, and argues that the model fails both normatively and descriptively as a representation of individual intertemporal preferences for health outcomes. Variable rate discounted utility models are more flexible, but still require restrictive assumptions and may lead to dynamically inconsistent behaviour. The paper concludes by considering two ways of incorporating individual intertemporal preferences in health care program evaluations that allow for complementarity of health outcomes in different time periods.

Decision Support Techniques↗

Modeling prevention program effects on growth in substance use: analysis of five years of data from the Adolescent Alcohol Prevention Trial.

The efficacy of prevention programs is typically determined through analysis of covariance. To date, a growth curve modeling approach is not used extensively in program evaluation. However, for longitudinal data there are several advantages to using this approach as compared to methods comparing means at two time points in a piecemeal fashion. In this study, latent growth curve models were used to evaluate the effect of a program on the average level of drug use, rate of change (growth) of drug use, and acceleration or deceleration in the rate of change of drug use. The study relied on data from the Adolescent Alcohol Prevention Trial, a randomized longitudinal drug use prevention program. The program consists of drug use information, resistance skills training, and normative education components. Data regarding cigarette and alcohol use were collected over a 5-year period, grade 7 to grade 11. Students receiving the normative education program had significantly lower average levels of reported cigarette and alcohol use, lower rates of growth for reported cigarette and alcohol use, and less deceleration of reported levels of cigarette and alcohol use as compared with the control group. Growth curve analysis is a powerful and effective tool with which to model change and program efficacy.

Adolescent↗

A meta-analytic review of obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents: the skinny on interventions that work.

This meta-analytic review summarizes obesity prevention programs and their effects and investigates participant, intervention, delivery, and design features associated with larger effects. A literature search identified 64 prevention programs seeking to produce weight gain prevention effects, of which 21% produced significant prevention effects that were typically pre- to post effects. Larger effects emerged for programs that targeted children and adolescents (vs. preadolescents) and females, programs that were relatively brief, programs that solely targeted weight control versus other health behaviors (e.g., smoking), programs evaluated in pilot trials, and programs wherein participants must have self-selected into the intervention. Other factors, including mandated improvements in diet and exercise, sedentary behavior reduction, delivery by trained interventionists, and parental involvement, were not associated with significantly larger effects.

Adolescent↗

Restraint reduction: a new philosophy for a new millennium.

With the use of restraints to manage difficult patients becoming routine, one hospital initiated strategies to reduce restraint use. The authors describe the development and implementation of a restraint reduction program, educational strategies, and the evaluation program. The program is successfully reducing the prevalence of restraint use.

Aged↗

Meeting the health care needs of a rural Hispanic migrant population with diabetes.

CONTEXT: There is a need for models of health care that provide accessible, culturally appropriate, quality services to the population of Hispanic migrant farmworkers at risk for or diagnosed with diabetes. PURPOSES: The purposes of this study were to describe the Migrant Health Service, Inc (MHSI), Diabetes Program, the conceptual model on which it is based, and 4 types of outcomes achieved over a 3-year period. METHODS: Types and amounts of medical services and education were studied. Qualitative data obtained from program records and documents were analyzed to determine the nature of the program. Quantitative data were used to measure outcomes of the program. FINDINGS: The multiplecomponent MHSI Diabetes Program is addressing economic, cultural, and language barriers experienced by the target population. The program provides a continuum of health services and education that meet American Diabetes Association (ADA) Clinical Practice Recommendations on diabetes. The program exposes regional health care professionals and university students from numerous academic disciplines to Hispanic farmworker culture. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence-based program management, patient care, and program evaluation are traits of this program, which offers accessible, culturally appropriate, quality health services and education to Hispanic farmworkers. The multicomponent program model has high potential for positively impacting the health of the target population.

Diabetes Mellitus↗

Maternal and child health project in Nigeria.

Maternal deaths in developing countries are rooted in womens powerlessness and their unequal access to employment, finance, education, basic health care, and other resources. Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, and it is an oil producing country, but Nigeria has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in Africa. These deaths were linked to deficiencies in access to health care including poor quality of health services, socio-cultural factors, and access issues related to the poor status of women. To address these problems, a participatory approach was used to bring Christian women from various denominations in Eastern Nigeria together. With technical assistance from a research unit in a university in Eastern Nigeria, the women were able to implement a Safe Motherhood project starting from needs assessment to program evaluation. Lessons learned from this program approach are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Published literature on faculty development programs.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Published faculty development program evaluation articles often leave the program description incomplete, making it difficult for new program planners to build on previous work. Using a model based on the work of Stuffelbeam, we examined faculty development literature for the inclusion of important program elements. We found that many important program components, including local needs assessment, leadership and resource support, stakeholder input, implementation barriers, participant attendance, and cost were each discussed in fewer than 30% of published articles. The context, input, process, and product framework is proposed as a guiding model for future program reports.

Education↗

An evaluation of program implementation strategies for a rural first-responder system.

An experimental emergency first-responder system was introduced in 36 small rural Georgia communities as a means for addressing inadequate access to emergency medical services for these communities. A prospective evaluation was designed to address the most efficient and effective means to organize, implement, and administrate such a program on a regional basis. Key to the program were community-selected residents who served as Emergency Medical Coordinators (EMCs) and performed as first responders, information sources on emergency care, and system organizers. The evaluation examined the process of organizing the program through local government versus voluntary group sponsors in terms of response and participation by communities and their ability to select effective EMCs. It assessed the effectiveness of a set of criteria for selecting residents as EMCs against three sets of performance measures encompassing first-responder skills and activities which maintained public awareness and program visibility. Critical to program success was the degree of sponsor involvement in selecting EMCs.

Community Health Services↗

Computer program for evaluating the thermal environment.

The calculations required to evaluate the thermal environment can be tedious and time consuming. To reduce this effort to a minimum, a computer program is presented that requires only five basic measurements to calculate and print out a complete evaluation of the thermal environment at a specific location. These are the dry bulb, natural wet bulb, psychrometric wet bulb and black globe temperatures, and the air velocity. Any reference to charts, tables and nomographs is unnecessary, since all other quantities are contained within, or computed by, the program.

Computers↗

Sampling clinicians' activities using electronic pagers.

Pager-based activity sampling (PAS) is described as a cost-effective and unobtrusive method for sampling residents' activities in clinical settings. A sample program evaluation is presented using residents in an urban children's hospital resident-training program. The purposes of the program evaluation were: (a) to establish a behavioral baseline that would help clinical faculty understand how residents were using their time, and (b) to determine whether alterations in the way residents were assigned within the hospital resulted in desired changes to time spent. The primary rationale for changing resident-assignment policies were: (a) to decrease the time residents were spending in transit between various locations within the hospital, and (b) to increase the time spent by residents in educational activities and in direct contact with patients and their families. This PAS application demonstrates that the technique can produce statistically supportable conclusions, at minimal cost, without unduly disrupting either the residents or their patients. PAS is compared with other time-sampling methods, its limitations are discussed, and suggestions for future applications are provided.

Confidence Intervals↗

Evaluating unlicensed assistive personnel models. Asking the right questions, collecting the right data.

Although the popularity of unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) models is evident by their implementation across the country, there has been very little scientifically based evaluation of their effectiveness. To facilitate better program evaluation, the authors review the current literature and outline a variety of data elements essential to effective UAP model evaluation. Major concepts that are addressed include program cost-effectiveness, customer satisfaction, patient outcomes, and evaluation of the success of both the training and implementation processes. Research questions that are pertinent to the model and need investigation also are presented. It is only through more thorough program evaluations that nurse executives can make informed decisions regarding the outcomes of care delivery restructuring efforts.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

Methodological challenges in evaluation of dissemination programs.

Several authors have suggested that the purpose of evaluating programs in their dissemination phase is to show that the conditions necessary to produce the expected outcomes are implemented. The need for outcome evaluation should thus decrease when a program goes from the demonstration to the dissemination phase. Disputing such a proposition, this paper argues that: 1) the evaluation agenda should be broad and open in all phases of program development; 2) the need for outcome assessment should be present during the entire cycle of any program's life, and 3) there is a need to develop creative methodological approaches to address issues relevent to the evaluation of dissemination programs. Finally, eight research strategies are presented for addressing two such issues: the relationship between the researcher and the program and the equivocality of the causal inference present during the dissemination phase.

Community Participation↗

Screening to control infectious diseases: evaluation of control programs for gonorrhea and syphilis.

Gonorrhea and syphilis serve as models for the definition of criteria for the evaluation of screening programs for detection of disease. Mass screening and selective screening are distinguished from individual screening (case finding). Important characteristics of screening tests are sensitivity, specificity, efficiency, precision, accuracy, and acceptability. Program evaluation includes process evaluation and outcome evaluation. Major criteria to consider in the evaluation of mass screening programs are prevalence and incidence of disease, predictive value of tests used, yield, available screening tests, acceptance, follow-up services, costs and benefits, and control over the spread of infection. All forms of screening programs should be evaluated by available methods so that they will operate with maximal efficiency and so that nonproductive programs can be discarded.

Communicable Disease Control↗

A hospital-based neonatal intensive care unit bereavement follow-up program: an evaluation of its effectiveness.

Health care professionals strive to meet the needs of patients and families in a holistic approach. With the death of a newborn, many challenges arise that cause health care professionals to question their abilities to provide adequate grief support. The death of a newborn is unnatural and evokes many unresolved feelings about death that society has not recognized. A bereavement program in an NICU can provide consistent support for grieving families. This article evaluates several aspects of a hospital-based bereavement follow-up program by comparing its first year and a subsequent year. Establishing a bereavement program and outlining responsibilities for staff involvement are also addressed.

Bereavement↗

A SAS program for evaluating person-years of risk in cohort studies.

A SAS macro, written to evaluate person-years of exposure in longitudinal studies, is presented in this paper. The program has the advantage of stratification by age groups and chronological subperiods, a feature recommended in long-term studies, involving temporal changes in patterns of outcome. The program creates a data set that can be utilized to calculate age-adjusted incidence rates in categories of risk factors for morbidity and mortality.

Cohort Studies↗

Empowerment evaluation as a social work strategy.

This article explores the application of empowerment strategies to program evaluation within a community health setting and presents a case study to examine the policy, direct practice, and research issues associated with the plan to evaluate a community-based HIV-prevention program. Empowerment evaluation strategies were used to develop an innovative street outreach intervention that can be measured and evaluated, to transfer evaluation knowledge from the researcher-expert to the program stakeholders, and to help overcome evaluation implementation obstacles. The article addresses the benefits and risks inherent in an empowerment approach to the evaluative research process.

Community Health Services↗