Using Fourth-Generation Evaluation in Nursing

Abstract

Evaluation is disciplined inquiry undertaken to determine the value, including merit and worth, of some entity: a curriculum program, a clinical intervention, an academic course, a care plan. An evaluation is conducted to improve or refine the thing being evaluated (evaluand) or to assess its impact and effectiveness. Evaluation in nursing has been designed using various positivistic and post-positivistic models in the first three "generations" in the evolution of evaluation practice. This article describes a new model of nursing evaluation more consistent with a nursing paradigm than with a traditional, scientific, medical paradigm. Responsive nursing evaluation informs and empowers all those involved in its outcomes (the stakeholders) when framed within the research stance called naturalistic or constructivist inquiry. The fourth-generation-evaluation approach of Guba and Lincoln (1989) is consistent with a nursing paradigm and a constructivist approach. Fourth-generation evaluation is presented with specific application to nursing evaluation.