Nursing Education Program Evaluations: Onsite Visits vs. Document-Only Reviews

The North Carolina Board of Nursing (BON) compared two approaches to nursing education program evaluation: the existing approach using onsite visits and a new approach using documents only.The project involved using a newly designed evaluation tool to assess seven prelicensure programs using both approaches and then comparing the findings. The results led the BON to adopt the document-only approach at a substantial cost savings without jeopardizing program quality.