• Masoud Khodaveisi, Mehrnoosh Pazargadi, Farideh Yaghmaei, and Ali Bikmoradi.
• Department of Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
• J Res Med Sci. 2012 Jul 1; 17 (7): 710717710-7.

BackgroundAlthough nursing education in Iran has a positive trend in growth; it is still facing with multifaceted challenges. This study aims to explore the challenges for effective evaluation of nursing education perceived by academic managers.Materials And MethodsA qualitative study was performed by using 21 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with academic managers in medical universities and at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in Iran. All interviews were recorded digitally, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe main challenges could be categorized under 3 themes, each included 3 subthemes: managerial issues (inefficacy of management, inadequacy of policies and strategies, ineffective evaluation planning); administrative issues (inefficient and affected evaluators, inappropriate implementation, and inefficacy of approaches and tools); and structural issues (inappropriate culture, clinical education complexity, lack of alumni follow-up system).ConclusionsThe results emphasize the need for educational evaluation development in nursing, including systematic and regular educational evaluation planning focusing on efficient feedback system and regard to excellence models. The comprehensive educational evaluation requires participation, involvement, and collaboration among the Nursing Board, Nursing ministerial office, faculties of nursing, and Nursing Organization. Thus, it is necessary to better designate current educational evaluation systems, policies, approaches, methods, and procedures.

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