Evaluating individual performance in higher education: a new challenge for nurse educators

In response to the demands for more accountability and efficiency in higher education, of which nurse education is now a part, this paper explores the evaluation of individual performance. It considers the purposes of staff appraisal and draws upon a study of criteria for self-appraisal of teachers and upon experience gained in introducing teacher appraisal into schools. Different teaching environments are discussed and the additional demands upon academic staff in universities in terms of research are considered in the light of the recent Research Assessment Exercises. Particular consideration is given to the performance of nursing departments in the 1992 exercise and to the implications for staff appraisal. Successful procedures for evaluating individual performance in schools that might transfer to higher education are identified and strategies that might be adopted by nursing departments are suggested. This paper argues that evaluation of individual performance is a worthwhile departmental function which, when successful, may help to create an atmosphere more conductive to the eventual successful introduction of total quality management to the institution as a whole. It concludes that the extra substantial demands upon staff time and energy, at a time when nursing departments are trying to establish themselves in the higher education sector, might be alleviated if the groundwork already undertaken in schools is put to good use.