UTILIZING NARRATIVE INQUIRY TO EVALUATE A NURSING DOCTORATE PROGRAM PROFESSIONAL RESIDENCY

Because the University of Colorado (CU) School of Nursing Nursing Doct orate (ND) Program initiated an innovative nursing educational reform, emerging program evaluation challenges were addressed to ensure succe ssful implementation and program quality, The study's purpose was to e valuate the effectiveness of the ND professional clinical residency (f ourth and final year) from the students' perspectives, Therefore, this evaluation was exploratory and inductive to focus on the primary ques tions: ''How does one become an ND nurse during the residency?'' (proc ess) and ''What is an ND nurse?'' (outcome), Additionally, an explanat ion of how interactive processes affected residency experiences was ad dressed, The narrative inquiry framework made available a special acce ss to the human experiences of time, order, and change during the resi dency process, Ten students in the first CU ND Program residency parti cipated, Narrative data for qualitative analysis were obtained from st udents' monthly written vignettes and verbal sharing of their clinical experiences during conferences. Vignette formats directed students to describe significant residency experiences and share reflections on t he events, One finding suggested that students' formative progression through the residency occurred In four phases similar to cognitive dev elopment theories, Additional findings confirmed students' growth towa rd and summative attainment of ND outcome behaviors, including holisti c clinical proficiency, client advocacy, and promotion of professional growth for colleagues.