The impact of practice development in an emergency department: A pluralistic evaluation

Following completion of a practice development (PD) project in a hospital emergency department (ED,) a pluralistic evaluation was undertaken to assess staff perspectives on the impacts of PD on the ED. Individual and focus group interviews were used to gather data, and thematic and integrative analyses of these were undertaken. The overall findings of the evaluation revealed that the participants consistently felt that PD was a valuable undertaking, was useful for engaging in processes of change and offered positive outcomes both for staff and for patients. The research results generate confidence in the methods of pluralistic evaluation to evaluate the impacts of PD. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.