gms | German Medical Science

Background: Excellence in nursing leadership and management requires evidence-based education programs. Program evaluation is an essential process to achieve excellence in curriculum development, course delivery, and student outcomes. Faculty from the Schools of Nursing and Continuing Education of an inner city University collaboratively developed and conducted a program evaluation of a Leadership and Management for Nurses, Baccalaureate Level Certificate, in a Canadian University. The evaluation included four phases.

Objective: To evaluate the current Leadership and Management for Nurses Baccalaureate Level Certificate against best practice guidelines and stakeholder interviews.

Method: The mixed method design included 1) graduate satisfaction surveys; 2) needs assessment for B.Sc.N.’s; 3) community Nursing Leaders stakeholder focus groups; 4) faculty appraisal of curriculum against the national benchmark: the professional best practice guidelines for leadership. Quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated across the four measures for certificate review.

Results: Data analyses revealed curriculum content that met identified needs and guideline recommendations. Inter-rater reliability scores demonstrated high concordance between several certificate courses and the guidelines. Courses with high discordant scores were identified and targeted for revision. Complementarity of findings from phase four with qualitative and quantitative data from phases one though three are discussed. Data integation across all phases demonstrated congruence with guideline recommendations.

Discussion: Future directions in leadership and management education are grounded in best practice evidences and stakeholder feedback. Evidence supports the use of a leadership model to develop the new curriculum.

Implications: Guidelines play an important role in curriculum development and evaluation.