Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development

BackgroundThe vital role of evaluation as integral to program planning and program development is well supported in the literature, yet we find little evidence of this in health promotion practice. Evaluation is often a requirement for organisations supported by public funds, and is duly undertaken,...

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Main Authors:	Lobo, Roanna, Petrich, Mark, Burns, Sharyn
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	BioMed Central Ltd 2014
Subjects:	Evaluation Program development Health promotion
Online Access:	http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/1315/abstract http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35304

id	curtin-20.500.11937-35304
recordtype	eprints
spelling	curtin-20.500.11937-353042017-09-13T15:22:16Z Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development Lobo, Roanna Petrich, Mark Burns, Sharyn Evaluation Program development Health promotion BackgroundThe vital role of evaluation as integral to program planning and program development is well supported in the literature, yet we find little evidence of this in health promotion practice. Evaluation is often a requirement for organisations supported by public funds, and is duly undertaken, however the quality, comprehensiveness and use of evaluation findings are lacking. Practitioner peer-reviewed publications presenting evaluation work are also limited. There are few published examples where evaluation is conducted as part of a comprehensive program planning process or where evaluation findings are used for program development in order to improve health promotion practice. DiscussionFor even the smallest of programs, there is a diverse array of evaluation that is possible before, during and after program implementation. Some types of evaluation are less prevalent than others. Data that are easy to collect or that are required for compliance purposes are common. Data related to how and why programs work which could be used to refine and improve programs are less commonly collected. This finding is evident despite numerous resources and frameworks for practitioners on how to conduct effective evaluation and increasing pressure from funders to provide evidence of program effectiveness. We identify several organisational, evaluation capacity and knowledge translation factors which contribute to the limited collection of some types of data. In addition, we offer strategies for improving health promotion program evaluation and we identify collaboration of a range of stakeholders as a critical enabler for improved program evaluation. SummaryEvaluation of health promotion programs does occur and resources for how to conduct evaluation are readily available to practitioners. For the purposes of program development, multi-level strategies involving multiple stakeholders are required to address the organisational, capacity and translational factors that affect practitioners’ ability to undertake adequate evaluation. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35304 10.1186/1471-2458-14-1315 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/1315/abstract BioMed Central Ltd fulltext
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Curtin University Malaysia
building	Curtin Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
topic	Evaluation Program development Health promotion
spellingShingle	Evaluation Program development Health promotion Lobo, Roanna Petrich, Mark Burns, Sharyn Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
description	BackgroundThe vital role of evaluation as integral to program planning and program development is well supported in the literature, yet we find little evidence of this in health promotion practice. Evaluation is often a requirement for organisations supported by public funds, and is duly undertaken, however the quality, comprehensiveness and use of evaluation findings are lacking. Practitioner peer-reviewed publications presenting evaluation work are also limited. There are few published examples where evaluation is conducted as part of a comprehensive program planning process or where evaluation findings are used for program development in order to improve health promotion practice. DiscussionFor even the smallest of programs, there is a diverse array of evaluation that is possible before, during and after program implementation. Some types of evaluation are less prevalent than others. Data that are easy to collect or that are required for compliance purposes are common. Data related to how and why programs work which could be used to refine and improve programs are less commonly collected. This finding is evident despite numerous resources and frameworks for practitioners on how to conduct effective evaluation and increasing pressure from funders to provide evidence of program effectiveness. We identify several organisational, evaluation capacity and knowledge translation factors which contribute to the limited collection of some types of data. In addition, we offer strategies for improving health promotion program evaluation and we identify collaboration of a range of stakeholders as a critical enabler for improved program evaluation. SummaryEvaluation of health promotion programs does occur and resources for how to conduct evaluation are readily available to practitioners. For the purposes of program development, multi-level strategies involving multiple stakeholders are required to address the organisational, capacity and translational factors that affect practitioners’ ability to undertake adequate evaluation.
format	Journal Article
author	Lobo, Roanna Petrich, Mark Burns, Sharyn
author_facet	Lobo, Roanna Petrich, Mark Burns, Sharyn
author_sort	Lobo, Roanna
title	Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
title_short	Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
title_full	Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
title_fullStr	Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
title_full_unstemmed	Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
title_sort	supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
publisher	BioMed Central Ltd
publishDate	2014
url	http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/1315/abstract http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35304
first_indexed	2018-09-06T22:18:51Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T22:18:51Z
_version_	1610898296010702848

Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development

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