- Email: [email protected]
Debates on evaluation
BOOK
RE C7EWS
333
and Denmark as a collaborative exercise with the World Health Organization. The project is described by the authors as a “demonstration project” whose overall purpose is to effect a measurable improvement in the health of selected communities in Denmark and Newfoundland through the provision of primary health care services managed, and largely provided, by nurses. This is a particularly useful piece of work. It has a wide number of aims which involve trying to measure the improvement in health status, involving the community in programme planning, conducting relevant research studies to improve care and collaborating with other health care providers. This kind of evaluation is relatively new in nursing and should contribute to the body of knowledge in nursing diagnosis and treatment. The book, in general terms, would be of use for nurses, midwives and health visitors who want to explore the issue of research in primary health care and it is particularly useful that examples are given of quantitative and qualitative research. Some of these chapters require an in-depth knowledge of statistical processes and would be suitable in the main for students who were at an advanced level of study. Generally speaking, the book is clearly written with useful examples and relevant methods. However, it is true to say that the book is written from a medical standpoint and is very much focused on the physician. It fails to address many issues in terms of community health care as compared with primary health care. The chapters vary in their aims and subject treatment. Some simply address a particular type of methodology without explaining in depth what it is or how it might be used and ends up drawing attention to the method. Other chapters, particularly in the qualitative area, spend considerable time exploring the advantages and disadvantages of such a method. A particularly useful chapter is that by Cecil Hellman on qualitative methods. In this he looks at the contributions of qualitative techniques to primary health care, and discusses some of the concepts from medical anthropology that underline this approach. It is encouraging to see that both qualitative and quantitative methods have a place in research in primary health care. I would certainly recommend this book to nursing libraries as a very useful edition for those students who are studying primary health care in some depth and also for those students who are interested in research methods in this area. JEAN ORR, B.A.,
Debates on Evaluation. hlarvin cloth, f 14.95 paperback.
C. Alkin
MSc.,
R.G.N.,
R.H.V., H.V. Tutors Cert. Professor of Nursing Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland
(Ed.). Sage Publications,
London.
Price f29.95
This book allows us to eavesdrop on a seminar attended by “10 distinguished evaluation professionals” that took place in Malibu, Hawaii apparently sometime in the late 1980s. The participants were mostly specialists in the evaluation of educational programs, working
334
BOOK REVIEWS
in the U.S.A. Many of the comments refer quite specifically to the institutional environment of education and educational research within the U.S.A. Moreover the principal purpose of the seminar was to discuss the utilization of evaluations rather than evaluation itself. There is, therefore, likely to be little of interest to an international audience of health care researchers with a particular interest in nursing. Nevertheless for those who might wish to know, the s inar transcript has been edited and rearranged under three headings: “Evaluation Utiliz r tion”, “Evaluation Theory” and “Politics and Ethics”. Each section is adequately summarized in a few pages. The most incisive arguments are presented in an additional section entitled “Evaluation Theory Distinctions: Further Debate”, in which two of the principal seminar protagonists take opportunities provided elsewhere to develop their respective cases. Here highly illuminating comments are to be found in the description of the decision making process as provided by Carol Weiss. The main areas of dispute centre around a set of related dichotomies: between evaluation and research, project and policy, action research and summative research, responsibility to a wider or narrower audience, direct or indirect influence on actions, specific versus general truths. If these are the issues that excite you, buy the book. If you are interested in discovering how evaluations should be undertaken, keep looking. J. K. BUCKINGHAM, M.Sc., B.Sc. Research FeNo w, Health Services Research Unit. University of Aberdeen, A berdeen , U.K.
Computer Assisted Interviewing. Willem E. Saris, Sage Publications (1991). Sage University Paper 80, Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences Series. Price f6.95 paperback. This handbook forms a useful introduction to computer assisted interviewing. Saris covers a range of computer assisted interviewing techniques and discusses some of the potential gains and losses of replacing interviewers completely or drastically reducing their role by introducing computer assisted interviews. Computers are already used extensively in market research both in the U.K. and the U.S.A. Saris reveals that in 1990, in the States, 69% of university research institutions were using computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) and that a further 22% planned to introduce such techniques. The handbook offers useful practical tips for those previously involved in more traditional questionnaire design, and gives examples of how questions can be adapted for use in computer assisted interviews. Saris also illustrates that many aspects of questionnaire design, for example branching, coding and randomization of questions can be simplified by using a computer program to make calculations, validate answers and follow skips rather than
RE C7EWS
333
and Denmark as a collaborative exercise with the World Health Organization. The project is described by the authors as a “demonstration project” whose overall purpose is to effect a measurable improvement in the health of selected communities in Denmark and Newfoundland through the provision of primary health care services managed, and largely provided, by nurses. This is a particularly useful piece of work. It has a wide number of aims which involve trying to measure the improvement in health status, involving the community in programme planning, conducting relevant research studies to improve care and collaborating with other health care providers. This kind of evaluation is relatively new in nursing and should contribute to the body of knowledge in nursing diagnosis and treatment. The book, in general terms, would be of use for nurses, midwives and health visitors who want to explore the issue of research in primary health care and it is particularly useful that examples are given of quantitative and qualitative research. Some of these chapters require an in-depth knowledge of statistical processes and would be suitable in the main for students who were at an advanced level of study. Generally speaking, the book is clearly written with useful examples and relevant methods. However, it is true to say that the book is written from a medical standpoint and is very much focused on the physician. It fails to address many issues in terms of community health care as compared with primary health care. The chapters vary in their aims and subject treatment. Some simply address a particular type of methodology without explaining in depth what it is or how it might be used and ends up drawing attention to the method. Other chapters, particularly in the qualitative area, spend considerable time exploring the advantages and disadvantages of such a method. A particularly useful chapter is that by Cecil Hellman on qualitative methods. In this he looks at the contributions of qualitative techniques to primary health care, and discusses some of the concepts from medical anthropology that underline this approach. It is encouraging to see that both qualitative and quantitative methods have a place in research in primary health care. I would certainly recommend this book to nursing libraries as a very useful edition for those students who are studying primary health care in some depth and also for those students who are interested in research methods in this area. JEAN ORR, B.A.,
Debates on Evaluation. hlarvin cloth, f 14.95 paperback.
C. Alkin
MSc.,
R.G.N.,
R.H.V., H.V. Tutors Cert. Professor of Nursing Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland
(Ed.). Sage Publications,
London.
Price f29.95
This book allows us to eavesdrop on a seminar attended by “10 distinguished evaluation professionals” that took place in Malibu, Hawaii apparently sometime in the late 1980s. The participants were mostly specialists in the evaluation of educational programs, working
334
BOOK REVIEWS
in the U.S.A. Many of the comments refer quite specifically to the institutional environment of education and educational research within the U.S.A. Moreover the principal purpose of the seminar was to discuss the utilization of evaluations rather than evaluation itself. There is, therefore, likely to be little of interest to an international audience of health care researchers with a particular interest in nursing. Nevertheless for those who might wish to know, the s inar transcript has been edited and rearranged under three headings: “Evaluation Utiliz r tion”, “Evaluation Theory” and “Politics and Ethics”. Each section is adequately summarized in a few pages. The most incisive arguments are presented in an additional section entitled “Evaluation Theory Distinctions: Further Debate”, in which two of the principal seminar protagonists take opportunities provided elsewhere to develop their respective cases. Here highly illuminating comments are to be found in the description of the decision making process as provided by Carol Weiss. The main areas of dispute centre around a set of related dichotomies: between evaluation and research, project and policy, action research and summative research, responsibility to a wider or narrower audience, direct or indirect influence on actions, specific versus general truths. If these are the issues that excite you, buy the book. If you are interested in discovering how evaluations should be undertaken, keep looking. J. K. BUCKINGHAM, M.Sc., B.Sc. Research FeNo w, Health Services Research Unit. University of Aberdeen, A berdeen , U.K.
Computer Assisted Interviewing. Willem E. Saris, Sage Publications (1991). Sage University Paper 80, Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences Series. Price f6.95 paperback. This handbook forms a useful introduction to computer assisted interviewing. Saris covers a range of computer assisted interviewing techniques and discusses some of the potential gains and losses of replacing interviewers completely or drastically reducing their role by introducing computer assisted interviews. Computers are already used extensively in market research both in the U.K. and the U.S.A. Saris reveals that in 1990, in the States, 69% of university research institutions were using computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) and that a further 22% planned to introduce such techniques. The handbook offers useful practical tips for those previously involved in more traditional questionnaire design, and gives examples of how questions can be adapted for use in computer assisted interviews. Saris also illustrates that many aspects of questionnaire design, for example branching, coding and randomization of questions can be simplified by using a computer program to make calculations, validate answers and follow skips rather than