Going beyond Kirkpatrick in evaluating a clinician scientist program: it's not "if it works" but "how it works"

To explore how the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program (CCHCSP) works to achieve prearticulated and emergent outcomes.

In 2009, after gaining ethical approval from the Hospital for Sick Children, the authors examined quantitative data (e.g., participation in curriculum elements) to ensure sufficient exposure by trainees to the program and quantitative outputs (e.g., publications) to measure achievement of CCHCSP goals. They identified emergent outcomes through grouping and analyzing qualitative data generated through interviews with program graduates. Then, to explore possible theoretical explanations for the emergent findings, the authors conducted a literature review.

Graduates participated in high rates in each component of the CCHCSP and produced publications, presented research, and received funding. Interview data revealed an unexpected outcome: that the CCHCSP helped graduates to form new professional identities. These data, along with theoretical assumptions from Ibarra's theory on professional identity change, informed a new theory or model for the CCHCSP.

Early investment in building a program's logic model is invaluable for understanding program goals and for guiding program planning and development. Both employing a strategy that captures emergent program outcomes and investigating (e.g., through a literature search) why and how the program actually works to arrive at these outcomes informs the development and evaluation of future program offerings and may, as in the case of the CCHCSP, offer a new program model or theory.