QUALITATIVE EVALUATION OF A NURSING EDUCATION PROGRAM. PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS´ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the evaluation to analyse (from the teachers and students’ perspective) of the implementation process of a Licenciatura in Nursing in the Facultad de Enfermería, Universidad autónoma de San Luis Potosí México, since the programme that was radically restructured. Methodology: it was a qualitative evaluation with an ethnographic focus that lasted from January 2004 to August 2005. The informants were 36 teachers and 42 students who were selected through a convenience sample. Eleven central groups were formed for the collection of the information. The data was analysed through the examination of the content according to different topics.  Results:  the teachers and students  referred  to their perception of strengths and weaknesses in relation to the experiences, and the evaluation of the content and implementation of the theory and practice areas in the programme, the teaching and learning process and its elements; as well as the teaching strategies and the evaluation, the perspective of the main parties and the relation among them. Conclusion:  it  is evident that the strengths and weaknesses in the structure, and the processes of a formative programme that established ambitious objectives based on the pedagogical focuses that sustain them, required a practical transformation of those involved. The constructive and critical restructuring of the programme detonated changes in the existing education schemes and so the teachers and students faced the need to change these. The process has encouraged some people to discover themselves and to make decisions to improve their practices. However it has caused in others a bigger resistance to change.