Curriculum evaluation: an approach towards appraising a post-basic psychiatric nursing course.

Abstract

Recently, considerable interest has been generated in the area of curriculum evaluation, most of which has concentrated on basic nurse education. This paper describes how an illuminative evaluation approach was used to examine the curriculum for a post-basic psychiatric nursing course. Following a brief introduction to curriculum evaluation it outlines the various methods of data collection and analysis, adds a word of caution and concludes by saying: the study revealed that psychiatric nurses were being trained to a high standard in a pleasant, relaxed environment where the standard of nursing care and the commitment of all involved was excellent.