Evaluation research: the need for multiple criteria The Research Unit was established in 1968 and one of its primary functions since then has been an attempt to evaluate experimental schemes of nurse training. Two of the explicit objectives of the research were to establish whether students could be attracted to such schemes of training and, if so, whether they could be successfully prepared by them to pass State finals examinations. The author is concerned that courses are‘evaluated’too readily in terms of single criterion measures such as pass rates, which may in fact be misleading. The paper argues that evaluation of a training course should involve the question‘Is it worth it?’and this implies a need for the use of multiple criteria.