Abstract

Systematic and detailed evaluation of health care education and training is a complex and methodologically challenging area. The approach proposed by Kirkpatrick (1968) has been partially utilised but with few evaluations covering all four elements of his evaluation scheme: 1. Reaction; 2. Knowledge change; 3. Behaviour change and 4. Organizational results.
This approach has proved important for nurse education, in that elements of it are adopted by many education providers focusing on the nurse learners reaction (level 1) to training (questions in this part of the scheme would include whether the learner is satisfied with the quality of the training). There is also an attempt to measure and monitor nursing knowledge development (level 2) and skill development (level 3) within nursing programmes. Consequently, formal evaluation of training is restricted to large undergraduate nursing programmes. However, the post graduate training of nurses also requires similar evaluation attention, but this has not so far been the case. In addition, there are significant critics of the Kirkpatrick approach who propose that these four domains are too simplistic and do not account for a number of important variables such as learner motivation (Klein et al 2006) and the quality of the training programme itself (Holton 1996). Indeed Holton et al (2000; Holton & Baldwin 2003) have proposed a model and tool for evaluation of training which accounts for 16 distinct transfer constructs. Health workers and educators may wish to evaluate training, but lack the resources and time to conduct systematic evaluations as proposed by the researchers above. At the same time, it can be argued that we must move beyond evaluation of learner satisfaction and whether they have learned more and tap into some more fundamental aspects of a nurse’s response to education and training.
This paper will examine the role of Identity Theory and discuss whether a simple, user friendly scale can be developed which will encourage a wider application of evaluation to cover a greater number of nursing programmes. A education programme has been conducted throughout Wales and this paper will present the results of the pilot evaluation scheme developed to provide evidence of the impact of this education programme on the learners.