ORGANIZATIONAL EVALUATION AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: CLINICAL EVALUATION OF NURSING STUDENTS.
Contributors: Stanford University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 184
Subjects: Education, Sociology of.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This research examines one component of the professional socialization process--the influence of evaluation conditions on student effort. The study focuses on how evaluations within a nursing education program shape skill development and professional competence by influencing effort. This study uses two alternative perspectives of how professional students acquire competence.

First, professional socialization may be conceptualized as organizational control as program conditions control the amount and direction of effort students invest. An evaluation and authority theory specifies how organizations predict students' effort through evaluation "influence" and "soundness.".

Second, a developmental perspective emphasizes interactions with role models and portrays students as striving to meet these expectations. This socialization literature describes increasingly autonomous students with internalized standards and substantial self-confidence.

Using a survey research design, the study sampled one baccalaureate nursing program and 70 students within two seniority levels. The first stage of research used a questionnaire to obtain measures of individual perceptions of evaluation influence and soundness, work and evaluation importance, level of effort, self-efficacy, and nature of instructor rating for each of four work categories. Quantitative data analysis included path analysis, using successive regression analyses of study variables. A second stage of research used interviews to illuminate findings from quantitative analyses.

Results support the argument that organizational evaluation conditions predict students' effort. In three work categories, evaluation influence and soundness show direct and indirect effects on effort. Differences between seniority cohorts suggest significant effects at different stages of the program. Findings also support the developmental view of professional socialization. Senior students, with higher levels of self-efficacy, apparently form ratings of evaluation importance independent of the evaluation's influence. These students apparently deemphasize external evaluation in favor of internalized performance standards. Seniors more likely describe this self-evaluation as an analytical, reflective process. Results suggest that the two perspectives represent complementary processes relevant to different stages of professional education. These findings suggest specific evaluation strategies and characteristics relative to seniority level. More broadly, these results suggest the need for professional educators to direct attention to evaluation conditions and processes as part of socialization.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1729.

Thesis (PH.D.)--STANFORD UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 0212.