STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF EVALUATION PROCESSES UTILIZED IN CLINICAL NURSING COURSES.
Contributors: Peabody College For Teachers Of Vanderbilt University.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 146
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Health.; Education, Higher.
Description: This study investigated senior nursing student perceptions of the effect on their learning of evaluation processes in clinical nursing courses. The study utilized a phenomenological approach based on the axioms of naturalistic inquiry. Twenty-four senior nursing student volunteers from five programs participated. The unstructured formal interview became the means for data collection, and field notes the method for data recording. The overall impressions from these interviews and utilized data provided the data for analysis. Fourteen separate categories of data under three broad subject areas emerged from the data. The three subject areas included: (a) evaluation, (b) learning, and (c) respondent identified related categories.

The main findings of this study concern the respondents' definition of evaluation and their emphasis on the process of evaluation rather than the content of evaluation. Respondents perceived evaluation as part of the learning process and did not make a clear distinction between learning and evaluation. They offered mostly negative comments regarding evaluation forms. They considered the characteristics and qualities of faculty members of extreme importance and an integral factor in the evaluation process. The respondents did not break their goals for clinical practice into the individual behaviors that behavioral objectives represent. They wanted learning experiences that meet their individual learning needs and styles.

This study adds to the literature advocating nursing education to replace behavioral theory and objectives with a more holistic approach to learning and evaluation. The data support the literature on preferred types of clinical instructors and preceptored learning experiences. The findings of this study stress the importance of the human transaction in nursing education. This study suggests that the time has arrived for nursing educators to evaluate, teach, and perceive students with the same holistic, caring framework within which they expect students to approach nursing care.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-04, Section: B, page: 1789.

Thesis (ED.D.)--PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, 1992.

School code: 0074.