Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Jean Higgins
Keywords
accreditation, accrediting bodies, approval, baccalaureate-completion nursing programs, criteria, educational institutions, evaluation, evaluation committee, evaluation models, evaluation plan, formative committee, health-care programs, interim report, Lima Technical College, literature review, nursing, Ohio Board of Nursing, program evaluation, quality assurance, recommendations, standards, summative committee, survey, validation
Abstract
Accreditation of nursing programs is designed to give the general public a measure of confidence regarding the quality of a particular program Many baccalaureate-completion nursing programs require persons to have graduated from accredited basic nursing programs in order to be accepted. The Ohio Board ofNursing also uses accreditation status of a nursing program when granting approval to conduct classes within the state. In 1 999 the nursing program at Lima Technical College was informed that the evaluation plan of the nursing program did not meet all of the criteria established by the accrediting agency. To maintain accreditation status, the nursing faculty re-wrote the evaluation plan, and then sought to evaluate the revisions.
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the evaluation plan for the nursing program at Lima Technical College. A literature review was conducted to identify various evaluation models and to identify the major concepts and criteria established by accrediting bodies for educational institutions and health-care programs. A formative committee identified major concepts and appropriate criteria for program evaluation as well as determined if the evaluation plan at Lima Technical College met the pre-determined criteria. Discrepancies identified were then considered as areas for improvement. A survey was designed to validate the major concepts and criteria established by the formative committee members.
The survey was mailed to members of the summative committee, who were not affiliated with Lima Technical College. Summative committee members agreed that the major concepts and criteria identified by the formative committee members to evaluate a nursing program were appropriate and that the evaluation plan for the nursing program at Lima Technical College met the pre-determined criteria.
The results of the project were shared with the nursing faculty at Lima Technical College. Faculty members accepted the recommendations of the formative committee. The recommendations are to be immediately incorporated into the evaluation plan of the program. The evaluation committee of the nursing program will use the results of the project when writing the interim report required by the accrediting body for nursing programs.