


a critical appraisal or assessment; a judgment of the value, worth, character, or effectiveness of something; measurement of progress. A broad view of evaluation in health care includes three approaches, directed toward structure, process, and outcome, depending on the focus of evaluation and the criteria or standards being used.

Structure evaluations are concerned with physical facilities, equipment, staffing, and other characteristics of the facility or agency that have an effect on the quality of care being provided. Process evaluations center on the activities of the provider and what the provider has done to assess, plan, and implement nursing care. The criteria used in process evaluations in nursing are the Standards of Nursing Practice developed by the American Nurses' Association. Structure and process evaluations are primarily concerned with quality assurance and nursing audits. Outcome evaluations focus on the patient and goals set forth in the care plan and therefore are patient- and goal-oriented. Thus, outcome evaluation is the measurement of a patient's progress or lack of progress toward achievement of specified goals.

The purpose of the evaluation is to determine whether outcome criteria have been met and how care for the patient might be improved. Evaluation is not done to find fault or lay blame for inefficiency, incompetence, or carelessness. It is done for the purpose of improvement, by identifying specific areas that need change for the better. Some weaknesses that could be found during evaluation are vague or inaccurate statement of the problem because of poor assessment or faulty analysis and interpretation of data, unrealistic goal-setting due to overestimating capabilities of the patient or available resources, and well-intentioned but inappropriate nursing interventions that do not effectively meet the hoped-for outcome criteria.

Evaluation of direct care and the effectiveness of care plans and interventions is an ongoing activity. It serves to direct reassessment of patient status, the reordering of priorities, new goal-setting, and revision of nursing care as indicated.

The basic components of evaluation are (1) identifying the parameters of the subject of appraisal, (2) developing criteria specific to the topic within the parameters, (3) data gathering, (4) measuring the data against the criteria, and (5) employing the results of assessment for improvement of the process, status, behavior, or activity evaluated.

Parameters are the exact dimensions or fixed limits that clearly define the area of evaluation. They establish the frame of reference within which the process will take place and are essential to accurate interpretation and meaningful use of the results of the evaluation. Parameters to be considered might include the framework of time within which the data gathering will take place, description of the kinds of data to be obtained, and specification of the patient population selected for evaluation of patient care. In a nursing audit, for example, the medical records chosen for audit might be those of patients whose admission and discharge dates were within a specific period of time, and whose age range and diagnoses were similar. Since it is a nursing audit, the kind of data collected should be limited to information related to the area of nursing activities and the resulting patient care outcomes recorded on the patient's chart.

In the assessment of a patient's status on the health/illness continuum, the parameters might limit the appraisal to respiratory function, neuromuscular function, emotional status, or any of a number of areas that are important to accomplishing the overall goals and objectives of health care for that specific patient.

Data gathering involves the collection of information that gives factual and objective evidence about the subject being evaluated. The evidence may be obtained through observation, interview, the review of patient records, and, as in the case of assessment of a patient's health/illness status, through such procedures as laboratory analysis and testing, radiologic studies, and other diagnostic techniques, as well as a physical assessment or examination and history taking.

The data collected become documented evidence, which is then measured against the established criteria. If the evidence indicates that all of the criteria are being met, there is no indication of a problem in the area of evaluation. If the evidence shows that certain criteria are not met, these deficiencies are identified as the ones needing attention so that there can be progress toward the stated goals.
The evaluation process using occupational therapy as an exemplar. From Pedretti and Early, 2001.
criterion-referenced evaluation evaluation of performance by judging an individual's behavior, performance, or knowledge against specific criteria or standards. See also criterion-referenced testing.
formative evaluation evaluation that involves feedback regarding progress being made; it involves the continuous gathering of evaluative data throughout a learning experience.
normative-referenced evaluation evaluation in which the scores of an individual are interpreted in light of the norm or distribution of scores of others taking the same test; progress is determined by how well the individual compares with peers.
outcome evaluation see evaluation.
process evaluation see evaluation.
product evaluation in the nursing interventions classification, a nursing intervention defined as determining the effectiveness of new products or equipment.
structure evaluation see evaluation.
summative evaluation evaluation that involves one statement of the extent of achievement of objectives or goals; it involves the gathering of evaluative data at the end of a learning experience.


Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012


Child psychiatry A process conducted by mental health professionals resulting in an opinion about a child's mental or emotional capacity, which may include treatment or placement recommendations. See Assessment Medtalk The assessment of a person's past medical history and present status. See Cost effectiveness evaluation, Economic evaluation, PART evaluation, PRIME-MD evaluation, Psychiatric evaluation, Urodynamic evaluation.


1. nursing Determining whether expected outcomes were met; measuring effectiveness of nursing care, medical care, and forms of health care by other providers.
2. Synthesis of examination findings into a defined cluster of diagnostic classifications.
Synonym(s): assessment (1) .
Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012


Medical Dictionary for the Dental Professions © Farlex 2012

Patient discussion about evaluation

Q. What does an autism evaluation consist of? How long does it take? My two year old is getting evaluated for autism and I want to know what to expect. He is already in speech therapy. His speech therapist said she sees no signs of autism but I still want him tested just to be sure.

A. Hi Hun.. my twin son Thomas was 3 when he was taken to an assessment unit it was a 6 week look at him and how he was and acted, within a few sessions he was diagnosed with severe autism, he is nine now and still non verbal and still in nappies, i have to say autism isn't just about the lack of speech its a lot more than this, lack of eye contact , no interest in playing with other children head banging limited diet also can he a factor, Thomas had a speech therapist before he was assest at the “child development center” and even she said she thought he had autism but its not down to them they just pass on to the right people what she seen during the session, age two is very Young to be assest that is why (depending where your from) they like to leave it to three as speech is still developing.

Q. Can someone please explain the reason for juvenile delinquency?

A. Juvenile delinquency is not necessarily a trait of bipolar disorder, although it is possible for a person with bipolar disorder to act on impulse while experiencing an episode. To use Justins example, shop lifting, an adult in a manic episode may spend all of their money without thought or reason, where a child/youth may not have money to spend which may lead to shop lifting. In a manic episode Justin is right the lines between right and wrong can be blurred, thus the person suffering may make poor decisions and can find themselves in trouble with the law.

Q. Are Bipolar disorder and alcoholism related to each other? I need to know this.

A. People with bipolar disorder have a higher risk of becoming dependant on alcohol or drugs. It is called self medicating. Usually this behavior begins before there is a diagnosis or if diagnosed and being treated the treatment is not working properly. The substance offers the person a "mental break" the problem is this break is temperary because alcohol is a depressant so only for a little while is their any relief and then the depression worsens. It becomes a nasty cycle. If you or someone you know is self medicating and is being treated for bipolar disorder I would suggest going to the doctors and talking about your/their adictions and deside with a professional if the medications currently being taken are effective. From there hopefully the need for alcohol or drugs will lessen, then it is an issue of making a decision to stop all together.

More discussions about evaluation
References in periodicals archive ?
Similarly, private partners were not always willing to contribute financially to evaluation or to participate in conducting a programme evaluation.
Motivation of Programme Managers and Epidemiologists to Perform Programme Evaluation. The main motivations of programme managers and epidemiologists to conduct an evaluation were as follows: interest in childhood obesity prevention and ICIA; seeing evaluation as a natural part of the work process; increasing accountability for the JOGG-approach towards the aldermen and council; understanding of why the JOGG-approach is effective; motivation of stakeholders to participate in the JOGG-approach; securing of resources for the JOGG-approach; and the opportunity to present the results on a national level and compare their progress with other municipalities (Table 2):
Discuss the purpose of the evaluation in explicit terms.
Changes in evaluation from final to formative, leads to improving the students' learning and so the evaluation turns into dynamic state from stable state and this change leads to improving the students' learning and efficiency of teaching.
In this research, the researcher divided Dezfool to five regions and selected four schools from each region and one fifth grade class from each school and totally 10 classes from descriptive evaluation and 10 classes from quantitative evaluation were selected.
Dr Ghulam Mustafa, former deputy chief, Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, and former director, Project Evaluation Cell, ERRA, Prime Minister's Secretariat, shared the wealth of his knowledge and experience in the sector.
He highlighted the challenges of evaluation of democracy, governance and human rights in Pakistan in the light of United Nation's Millennium Development Goals and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This study explores students' evaluation of teachers and courses (by controlling ability level and individual differences) in which student has scored higher and lower marks.
A questionnaire was devised which comprised 47 items to measure the students teacher evaluation and students course evaluation.

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