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Evaluation Instrument (evaluation + instrument)
Selected AbstractsEvidenced-based clinical practice guideline for management of newborn painJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 4 2010Kaye Spence Aim: To facilitate the uptake of evidence and to reduce the evidence practice gap for management of newborn pain through the development of a clinical practice guideline. Method: An audit of practice and an appraisal of clinical practice guidelines were undertaken to establish current practices and guideline availability for the management of newborn pain in 23 hospitals in Australia. Guidelines were appraised using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation instrument. A literature search was undertaken to acquire the evidence for best practice for management of newborn pain. Results: Neonatal units in 17 hospitals had clinical practice guidelines. Each was peer reviewed and assessed according to the domains of the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation instrument. There was lack of consistency across the guidelines. As a result, a best practice guideline was developed based on current best evidence and the Royal Australian College of Physicians recommendations. To facilitate an ongoing compliance with the guideline, an audit tool was included together with algorithms for procedural pain and pain assessment. Conclusion: The clinical practice guideline can be used by clinicians in varying settings such as the neonatal intensive care and special care unit. The document can be used to support existing practices or challenge clinicians to close the evidence practice gap for the management of newborn pain. [source] Zero acquaintance benchmarking at travel destination websites: what is the first impression that national tourism organizations try to make?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 6 2006Jee-Hee Han Abstract This paper examines the marketing effectiveness of hospitality and tourism websites. An extensive review of literature on website effectiveness in hospitality and tourism revealed a total of 47 different instruments that have been used to evaluate hospitality and tourism websites. Using the grounded theory technique, a website evaluation tool called the online promotion evaluation instrument was developed with the aim of condensing the 47 existing tools into one benchmarked instrument with applicability across the various hospitality and tourism sectors. The developed online promotion evaluation instrument comprised three main features,aesthetics features (destination visualisation and Web design); informative features (uniqueness, monetary value and cultural promotion); and interactive features (e-travel planners and online communities). The instrument was tested using a random sample of 25 National Tourism Organization websites worldwide. The results of the instrument development and testing process are presented in this paper with directions for future research in website evaluation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Assessment of anger coping skills in individuals with intellectual disabilitiesJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 5 2005P. Willner Abstract Recent controlled studies have supported the effectiveness of anger management training for people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This report describes an evaluation instrument designed to assess their usage of specific anger coping skills. The Profile of Anger Coping Skills (PACS) is designed for completion by a staff member or carer. Three situations are first elicited in which a client frequently displays anger. The respondent then rates each situation for the extent to which the client deploys each of eight behavioural and cognitive coping skills. In a preliminary reliability study, 20 users of a day service for people with IDs were rated independently by two staff members, with one of them completing the assessment on two separate occasions: the PACS showed good test,retest reliability and lower, but still acceptable, interrater reliability. The PACS was subsequently used, in a different day service, as part of the assessment pack administered before and after a 12-week anger management group, with a parallel assessment of an untreated control group. The treated group showed substantial decreases in measures of anger, which were maintained at 6-month follow-up. Increases in PACS-rated anger coping skills were also seen in all participants in the anger management group, but not in the control group. There were differences in the extent to which different coping skills were acquired by the treated group, and there were also individual differences in the profile of specific skills acquired. It is concluded that the PACS is a reliable instrument for assessing anger coping skills, particularly when used repeatedly with the same informant. It provides information that is useful for both individual care planning and the design of future anger management programmes. [source] Design, validation, and use of an evaluation instrument for monitoring systemic reformJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 6 2001Kathryn Scantlebury Over the past decade, state and national policymakers have promoted systemic reform as a way to achieve high-quality science education for all students. However, few instruments are available to measure changes in key dimensions relevant to systemic reform such as teaching practices, student attitudes, or home and peer support. Furthermore, Rasch methods of analysis are needed to permit valid comparison of different cohorts of students during different years of a reform effort. This article describes the design, development, validation, and use of an instrument that measures student attitudes and several environment dimensions (standards-based teaching, home support, and peer support) using a three-step process that incorporated expert opinion, factor analysis, and item response theory. The instrument was validated with over 8,000 science and mathematics students, taught by more than 1,000 teachers in over 200 schools as part of a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of Ohio's systemic reform initiative. When the new four-factor, 20-item questionnaire was used to explore the relative influence of the class, home, and peer environment on student achievement and attitudes, findings were remarkably consistent across 3 years and different units and methods of analysis. All three environments accounted for unique variance in student attitudes, but only the environment of the class accounted for unique variance in student achievement. However, the class environment (standards-based teaching practices) was the strongest independent predictor of both achievement and attitude, and appreciable amounts of the total variance in attitudes were common to the three environments. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 646,662, 2001 [source] Interpreting course evaluation results: insights from thinkaloud interviews with medical studentsMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 10 2004Susan Billings-Gagliardi Purpose, To determine whether some of the fundamental assumptions that frequently underlie interpretation of course evaluation results are justified by investigating what medical students are thinking as they complete a typical basic science course evaluation. Methods, A total of 24 students participated in thinkaloud cognitive interviews, voicing their thoughts while completing a typical evaluation instrument that included items on overall course design, educational materials and methods, and faculty teaching. Students' responses were organised to consider how they interpreted questions, formed judgements and selected response options. Major themes relevant to the meaningful interpretation of course evaluation data were identified. Results, Medical students understood educational terms such as ,independent learning' in different ways from both one another and common usage. When formulating responses, students' judgements were sometimes based on unique or unexpected criteria, and they described editing their judgements by considering factors such as effort or caring on the part of teaching faculty. Students tended to avoid using the lower end of the rating scale, used the highest rating option selectively, but chose the second highest category indiscriminately. Conclusions, These results call into question fundamental assumptions that frequently underlie interpretation of course evaluation results, such as whether students understand the intended meanings of terms used in items; whether faculty members who receive the same rating are perceived similarly; whether ratings actually reflect teaching effectiveness, and whether ,positive' ratings reflect positive opinions. This study also demonstrates how thinkaloud interviews can be used in validity studies, providing information to supplement statistical and psychometric analyses. [source] Empathic understanding: Constructing an evaluation scale from the microcounseling approachNURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 1 2000Hiroko Nagano RN Abstract The Empathic Understanding Scale measures the depth of the nurse,patient relationship. As a nurse cares for a patient it is necessary to first establish a relationship. The author identified empathic understanding as the key concept for this study. The primary theme was to develop a scale to measure the nurse's level of empathic understanding of the patient. The purpose of the study was to examine a 23-item questionnaire using the microcounseling model to prove whether empathy is an effective tool in establishing a nurse,patient relationship. Using these results, factors were extracted to measure the level of the nurse's empathic understanding of the patient. Eighteen subjects participated in the pilot study: eight nurses employed by the psychiatric ward of one of Shizuoka's prefectural hospitals, Yoshinso, and 10 students learning to be public health workers. All 18 subjects verbally agreed to participate in the study. Data collection was through experimental interviews according to microtraining models and through questionnaires comprising four elements: moral, emotional, cognitive and communication action. The results were analyzed by principle factor analysis, two-way analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis of variance. Analysis resulted in four factors being extracted. Using the Emotional Empathy Scale for comparison, the content validity of those factors was confirmed. In the second study, these four factors were used as an evaluation instrument in the form of a list of 20 items of evaluation. Measurements were derived by evaluating the 327 nursing students who were the subjects for this study. The subjects performed pseudo-counseling role plays based on the microcounseling method. Five evaluators studied the counselor's behavior and attitude by observing the interaction between the client and counselor roles as the subjects performed role plays. A Likert scale was used to collect data and the data were analyzed by principle factor analysis. The Empathic Understanding Scale consists of four factors: ,acceptance attitude', ,cognitive awareness attitude', ,reflective attitude regarding emotions and meaning' and ,verbalization prompting attitude'. These four factor structure groups that were extracted were found to be the same in both the pilot study and the second study. In the second study, however, a more valid and reliable Empathic Understanding Scale was established. [source] | ||||||||||