Quality assurance in healthcare education
How it is achieved for our staff and students with delivery across several organisations
Quality assurance (QA) is about setting, maintaining and improving the quality of healthcare education so that it matches the expectations of the public, employers and healthcare professional bodies and which may include statutory requirements. The quality is then monitored to maintain the standards set and to make ongoing improvements. QA is multi-faceted and can be undertaken internally or via external agencies as described below:
| Process | Undertaken by |
| Internal quality assurance processes | The Trust and any relevant partner university / colleges / awarding bodies, including external examiners and internal validation and review of programmes |
| Institutional-level quality review | Quality assurance agency for higher education (QAA) |
| Professional accreditation | Professional and statutory bodies |
| Research assessment | Funding bodies using peer review - the research assessment exercise |
When developing and designing education programmes use this diagnostic tool to help frame QA requirements:
| QA issue | Questions to ask |
| Authority of the education | Has this learning been formally reviewed and accepted by a trusted source? Is the authority relevant for the intended use? This may include ethical approval as well as other quality kitemarks by trusted authorities plus CPD approval by one or more specific royal colleges |
| Currency | How out of date or current is the information? |
| Accuracy of content | Is the content correct? How is this judged? |
| Depth and breadth of content | Is it the correct depth for the intended use? (The content could be too superficial, too deep and technical and/or too much or too little). |
| Level | Is the content written and presented for the right level of user in terms of educational level and use of language? |
| Pedagogy | How well designed is the content in relation to various (sometimes competing) pedagogical models? |
| Accessibility | Is the content presented in a manner that conforms to accessibility standards and if so, to what degree? |
| Conforming to standards | In addition to accessibility standards there are many other types of standards that can relate to content including technical interoperability standards such as SCORM standards. To what degree does the content conform? |
| Level of metadata documentation | Has the content been adequately catalogued and to what taxonomy standard? |
| Technical construction | Is the content constructed so that it is disaggregated and optimised for multiple re-use? Has the text and image data been separated out to allow for easy change/tailoring/adaptation? |
| Relevance | Is the content too general or written mainly for a different purpose than that required in its particular intended use? |
| Technical deployment capability | Can the content be used in a particular technical environment? This may relate to fit for mobile device usage, particular smart device technologies, video/audio use, special purpose needs, etc. Also, what changes may be required due to developments in the device? |
| Suitability for audience | Perhaps similar to level (see first issue above), but slightly different. This may be more of a characteristic of the content than a quality of criteria - but somewhere we need to be able to state that this content is primarily intended for professional or clinical use, or is primarily intended for service users. |
| Validating the quality assurance | For all of these measures, what evidence exists to show that the quality measure has been met (e.g. reviews, validation against technical standards, kitemarks, etc.). |
Useful websites for QA and health professions educational standards:
General medical council
• QA of undergraduate education
• QA of postgraduate education
• QA of the Foundation Programme
General pharmaceutical company
• Standards and quality
Health professions council
• Standards of education and training guidance (2009)
NHS litigation authority
• Risk management standards
NHS London
• Education Commissioning
Nursing and midwifery council
• Standards
Quality assurance agency for higher education
• The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)
• QAA codes of practice
• QAA code of practice section 2 (collaborative provision and flexible and distributed learning) and section 7 (programme design, approval, monitoring and review). Amplified version (October 2010)
Skills for health
• EQuIP enhancing quality in partnership. Healthcare education QA framework (2006)
• Competences and national occupational standards