What Role Does the Site Evaluator Play?
Have you ever considered serving as a site evaluator or wondered what it’s like to participate as a peer reviewer during an accreditation visitation?
To shed light on what it means to serve in this role, we sat down with current ARC/STSA site evaluator Libby (Mary) McNaron, MSN, RN, CNOR, CSFA, CST, FAST, to gather insights into the evaluation process, common challenges, and the rewards of helping maintain excellence in the surgical field.
Q. What aspects of your role as a site evaluator do you find most rewarding or fulfilling?
Getting to talk with students. It is a chance to influence the future as you encourage them. Reassure them that all students everywhere must refold gowns and drapes. LOL.
Q. In what ways has your experience as a site evaluator contributed to your professional growth?
I learned from many great leaders including Chris Keegan, Roy Zacharias, Ron Kruzel, and Kevin Frey. They recommended site visiting as a way to better prepare for site visits and expand thought processes. In 2003, I did my first site visit. I learned so much. The most important thing I learned was that there are many ways to accomplish the same objective. The ideas and the sharing were exciting, and every experience brought new ideas and extended my abilities to develop a program that could flex according to the student’s needs that day. You start out with a plan, but you must adjust to the needs of each class and of each student.
Q. What observations or feedback from a site evaluation helped you identify opportunities for strengthening your program’s quality or effectiveness, and could you share these lessons learned with our educators?
- Regularly attend accreditation and educator meetings, take notes and ask questions. The accreditation process is fluid. Guidelines can change as best practices in education are identified. Samples located on the websites are not required forms or lists. Only the current Standards and policies are required, which includes the current core curriculum for the program.
- Ensure that all your outcomes and annual report paperwork are kept together along with PAC minutes and any other document used such as copies of surveys, admission forms, costs, etc. Keep a copy of the annual report with that documentation. One way is to keep a binder that has tabs for each section. This ensures that your annual report can be validated each year.
- Attend an educator conference and network with others to ensure you are keeping abreast of changes or areas of focus. Share forms and be open to a better or simpler way to meet that standard.
- Documentation of exams, evaluations, lab skills testing, etc. must have specifically defined criteria for the student so they know what is expected. It also correlates the essential elements for evaluators. This eliminates cries of unfair grading. If the student does not meet the criteria, the comments should reflect what they did to get a score less than perfect. In that case a plan for improvement should always be there. Last but not least, documents must be reviewed, signed and dated by both instructor and student.
Q. If someone is hesitant about becoming a site evaluator, what insight or encouragement would you share based on your own experience?
Anyone can become a site visitor. However, the most important thing is to become a kind evaluator. As you prepare, you learn so much about the outcome-based standards. Completing the questions, even if you are not the chair, can help you dissect the standard down to the essential elements and weed out opinion or personal preference. In the beginning, I was very stringent. I have learned to ask the program for essential components. You also learn that it is not necessary to “find a concern”, it is okay to have no concerns.
I also found that the review process provided validation that some things were good and I should continue them, while others needed improvement. Surgical instructors are willing to share. The accreditation and educational meetings for educators provide opportunities to share things that simplify the workload. You become more open to new ways. In some cases, you become more thankful for the resources you have, or you learn how to obtain more resources or “create” more opportunities for your staff or students. The process can be very rewarding.
Q. What skills are essential for a successful site evaluator, and how have you developed them?
Essential qualities include being open and flexible to the many ways that a program can meet the Standards. There is no cookie cutter program. Different areas of the country or even within an area have different needs, situations and resources. We have to be fair and consistent according to the Standards. Honesty, fairness and consistency for all programs are also essential.
As you discuss the situations that occur with the program faculty, ARC/STSA staff, and other reviewers, you develop your own personal communication skills and gain essential experience. You learn to ask the program for essential components. Give the program every opportunity to provide the essential documentation.
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We at ARC/STSA are grateful to all our site evaluators for their commitment to surgical technology and surgical assisting educational programs, professions, and the accreditation process. We could not support our programs in achieving and maintaining CAAHEP accreditation without the expertise and dedication of our site evaluators. Click here to see our recognition of the site evaluators who participated in 2024 site visitations.
Are you passionate about helping to advance surgical assisting and surgical technology educational programs? If so, we encourage you to apply to become a site evaluator and register for the Site Evaluator Training pre-conference session on November 6 at AccredX 2025 in Louisville, KY.
By serving as a site evaluator, you can share your expertise, help improve programs across the country and even gain new ideas and insights for your own program.
If you currently serve as a site evaluator, join your colleagues to learn more about the recent updates and improvements made to the on-site evaluation process. Register for the November 6 Evaluator Training.