why evaluation is important to me

Let me say at the outset that it is....but also let me say (because i have to get this on the outside.....), evaluation is the beggar of reactive education. I've read the opinion that 'we' the teachers don't really pay attention to evaluation....but I think we do, in terms of wishing we could do more......!

So that said. Evaluation is important to me, because I want to know that the teaching and learning encounters in which the nurses engage, directly impact on the quality of care being delivered to the patients. I want to know that the knowledge they have is incorporated into the decisions that they make and is useful in helping them get to the source of the problem quicker or helps them to prevent or head off potential problems at the pass.....

I read with interest the link to the posting on project evaluation toolkit (thank-you), and was really reassured by the stattement on page 4 that the evaluators perspective influences the questions asked and strategies used. In a meeting this week for L&D, I was forced to talk evaluation in numbers to the CFO because that's what he understands....but it is alien to me to try to talk ROI in numbers. Somehow, it feels 'soft' (in a qualitative sense) to say, "well we saved lives today you know"........So evaluation is also important to me because I want to learn how I can focus on the right questions rather than the scatter gun approach and look at everything (because it IS ALL important you know!) I am interested to look at different approaches to evaluation because it may be a strategic win to evaluate in someone elses frame of reference...numbers rather than 'care'..........because at the end of the day, evaluation is a tool for me to not only to check whether I am getting the right things right, but I also think that my learning here could help me to be able to talk to those other perspectives in ways that mean something to them.....if that assists the ongoing development of appropriate patient care....it' s all good!