Evaluation of home visits using a nursing process approach.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Community Health Nursing
• Healthcare Evaluation Tools

Background:

• Limited availability of standardized tools for evaluating nursing students during home visits.
• Need for a comprehensive instrument to assess essential nursing behaviors in the community setting.
• Importance of incorporating unique aspects of community-oriented nursing practice into student evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and describe a novel tool for evaluating nursing students' home visits.
• To integrate a nursing process framework with community-specific nursing competencies.
• To provide a structured method for assessing pre-visit, onsite, and post-visit nursing activities.

Main Methods:

• Development of a two-page evaluation tool based on a nursing process framework.
• Inclusion of key community health nursing elements: home environment assessment, family-oriented diagnoses, bag technique, and contracting.
• Refinement of the tool through empirical data collection from over 200 nursing students in clinical practice.

Main Results:

• A validated, two-page tool effectively measures essential nursing behaviors during home visits.
• The tool successfully incorporates unique aspects of community-oriented nursing practice.
• Empirical data from over 200 students supported the tool's refinement and utility.

Conclusions:

• The developed tool provides a standardized method for evaluating nursing students in community health settings.
• The instrument addresses the gap in existing literature for home visit evaluation tools.
• This tool enhances the assessment of critical nursing skills in diverse home environments.