Development of the program evaluation measurement of continuing nursing education programs

Purpose: This study was done to develop a measurement tool for evaluation of continuing nursing education programs and to verify its validity for effective management and quality of education programs. Methods: The draft of the evaluation measurement was developed from consultation with professionals, focus group interviews targeting groups of nurses, and individual interviews with education program planners. After 6 professionals examined content validity, 46 items were retained. A pilot-survey was conducted to confirm the time required to complete the questionnaire and the level of understanding of general content and each item in the questionnaire. Construct validity was verified through exploratory factor analysis of data from a survey with 44 items completed by 452 nurses and 59 education program planners. Results: The final evaluation measurement for continuing nursing education programs consisted of 6 evaluation factors and 36 evaluation items. The 6 evaluation factors included identifying program goals and target groups, program planning, performance, operation and management, program outcomes, and program effectiveness. Conclusion: The evaluation measurement for continuing nursing education programs developed in this study is considered suitable to utilize as an evaluation measurement of the quality of continuing education programs for nurses.