Rita G. O'Sullivan

Managers' perspectives of new graduates of accelerated nursing programs: How do they compare with other graduates?

Nurse managers in focus groups reported that new graduates of all types of prelicensure programs were not prepared clinically for beginning practice. Graduates of accelerated programs had similar knowledge and skills as other new nurses but also brought work experience and maturity to the clinical setting, which fostered their transition to the nursing role. Nurse managers reported generational differences among graduates beyond their educational preparation and explained how those differences affected their learning of new technologies. Educational implications are discussed.

Promoting Evaluation through Collaboration Findings from Community-based Programs for Young Children and their Families

Collaborative evaluation engages key program stakeholders actively in the evaluation process. Distance between external evaluators and program staff is often minimal, based on the assumption that a collaborative stance will strengthen evaluation results and increase utilization of evaluation findings. Convincing empirical evidence to support these assumptions is scarce. This study uses evaluation findings from a county-wide, comprehensive, early childhood education initiative to support the contention that a collaborative approach can substantively improve evaluation findings.

Special issue: Collaborative evaluation – Theory and practice

This issue focuses on the collaborative evaluation approach, examining it from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The issue begins with two articles from recognized collaborative evaluation theorists (O’Sullivan and Rodrı́guez-Campos) who review the approach’s evolution among other evaluation approaches and then examine the latest insights and trends around collaborative evaluation. The next five chapters provide examples of how collaborative evaluation has been used for different purposes in different settings with each chapter including a reflection about how the collaborative evaluation stance affected the evaluation dynamics. The final chapter, a reflection by Fitzpatrick, critically reviews the contents of the issue, examining the strengths and weaknesses of the approach and discusses future directions.

Collaborative evaluation and market research converge: An innovative model agricultural development program evaluation in Southern Sudan

In June and July 2006 a team of outside experts arrived in Yei, Southern Sudan through an AID project to provide support to a local agricultural development project. The team brought evaluation, agricultural marketing and financial management expertise to the in-country partners looking at steps to rebuild the economy of the war ravaged region. A partnership of local officials, agricultural development staff, and students worked with the outside team to craft a survey of agricultural traders working between northern Uganda and Southern Sudan the steps approach of a collaborative model. The goal was to create a market directory of use to producers, government officials and others interested in stimulating agricultural trade. The directory of agricultural producers and distributors served as an agricultural development and promotion tool as did the collaborative process itself.