Perspectives on assessment. Continuing the conversation

Throughout this series, emphasis has been placed on positioning assessment centrally to the process of community-based nursing education and practice reform. Developing an ongoing program of assessment at the local level, in both educational and practice institutions, serves as a frame for the necessary conversations we must be having with each other. How are we doing in our effort to prepare nurses to practice in an environment where the only constant seems to be change? This article, the last in the series, addresses ways to structure our conversations into a program of assessment. It also suggests community stakeholders who might be included in our assessment conversations, as well as alternative assessment methods worthy of consideration.