Health Program Planning and Evaluation: A Practical, Systematic Approach for Community Health by L. Michele Issel. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett; 2004. 497 pages, paperback, $33.97.
It is a pleasure to volunteer as a reviewer and find the assigned book to be exactly the one for which you have been searching!! Intended for graduate students and administrators learning program planning and evaluation on the job (an all too familiar approach for many health professionals), Health Program Planning and Evaluation provides an organized, practical approach to the field for both planners and clinicians. The author begins with an initial overview of critical issues in health program development and evaluation today, and proceeds through the logistics of assessment, theory selection, goal setting, and program implementation, and ends with several detailed chapters on evaluation strategies, analysis, reporting, and use. Each chapter contains helpful charts, tables, and diagrams that show the relationships between concepts and examples of topics and ideas presented in the text.
The book's subtitle, "A Practical, Systematic Approach to Community Health," is true-the book is readable without overly simplifying complex ideas, and well laid out with citations at the end of each chapter allowing easy reference and follow-up. The author approaches the topic of program planning from a broad public health perspective and uses the 4 levels of the public health pyramid as a unifying theme in each chapter. Each chapter discusses the implications and special issues for the 4 levels of the pyramid: its base of infrastructure services, the third level of population-based services, the second of enabling services, and the top, of direct healthcare services.
The book's material is presented in an easily readable style and the content is accurate, up-to-date, and appropriate for both graduate introductory and advanced application courses. The presentation of complex ideas such as sample size, cultural competency, and differences between intervention, impact, and outcome theory, are clearly presented. The many diagrams and tables might easily be used as templates in funding applications or class presentations.
The book fills a gap in practice resources by bringing together the many necessary components for program planning and evaluation. Its reasonable price allows it to be used as a supplemental text to courses with specific content for individual professions such as nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, or medicine. I have already found myself using content from the book in my health promotion course and in writing a foundation grant for a new program.
Patricia J. Kelly, PhD, MPH, RN, FNP
Associate Professor, Schools of Nursing/Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City