When planning for an evaluation in nursing, it is important to ensure that the results are made available to the most appropriate people in a timely manner and in a form that is usable. According to Bastable, the following guidelines are crucial for ensuring that the objectives mentioned above are realized in reporting evaluation results:
- Focusing on the audience.
- Sticking to the purpose of the evaluation.
- Using data in an intended manner.
Focusing on the audience
It is important to focus on providing the information contained in the results to the primary audience. This is because it is the audience that acts on the information in formulating important decisions. The various needs of the target audience should be factored in while planning on how to report the results of an evaluation. For instance, the intended target audience in healthcare may include hospital administrators who often lack time to go through lengthy reports. As such, by adding an executive summary, the target audience may get a glimpse of the report without spending much of their time. According to the American Psychological Association publication manual, the language and the format used in the report should also be easy to understand to make it readable.
Sticking to the purpose of the evaluation
Adhering to the purpose of an evaluation guides the reporting of evaluation results. It also ensures that only the relevant details are captured and that the report does not have any ambiguities. This helps in ensuring that only the instruments that report the results in an easily comprehensible manner are employed in the reporting.
Using data in an intended manner
Using data in the appropriate and intended way ensures that the collected data is presented in a manner that is easy to understand. As such, only the relevant data is used in the reporting, and this is also vital in determining the design of the report and the tools to be used in the presentations. The data should be presented in a form that is easy to analyze using the available tools in the healthcare sector. This is important in ensuring that the results are easily applied to various situations without any complications that may arise as a result of the lack of clarity.