A training project in which nurses acted as tutors to novice nurses was introduced in the Ferrara University Hospital, with the aim of helping them to achieve the skills and professional expertise required in an operating theatre environment. Owing to the involvement of all the surgical divisions of the hospital and the continual addition of new staff, the Balanced Scorecard method (BSC) was used to assess the impact of training on the entire organization. The BSC method, a multidimensional method born in the USA in the 1990's, made it possible to assess the utility of training in the light of achieving institutional goals.