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International Journal of Nursing... May 2020Accreditation of simulation programs is relatively new, and entails a rigorous process of planning, development and evaluation of all aspects of the simulation...
Accreditation of simulation programs is relatively new, and entails a rigorous process of planning, development and evaluation of all aspects of the simulation experience for students and/or health care professionals. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience of a Nursing Simulation Program in achieving designation as a fully accredited program. The process of developing a formal simulation program, strategic plan, policies and procedures, and an evaluation plan are included, as well as the benefits to achieving accreditation.
Topics: Accreditation; Clinical Competence; Computer Simulation; Educational Measurement; Humans; Interprofessional Relations; Problem-Based Learning; Program Development; Simulation Training
PubMed: 32930546
DOI: 10.1515/ijnes-2019-0134 -
Academic Medicine : Journal of the... Dec 2019To summarize the state of evidence related to undergraduate medical education (UME) accreditation internationally, describe from whom and where the evidence has come,... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE
To summarize the state of evidence related to undergraduate medical education (UME) accreditation internationally, describe from whom and where the evidence has come, and identify opportunities for further investigation.
METHOD
The authors searched Embase, ERIC, PubMed, and Scopus from inception through January 31, 2018, without language restrictions, to identify peer-reviewed articles on UME accreditation. Articles were classified as scholarship if all Glassick's criteria were met and as nonscholarship if not all were met. Author, accrediting agency, and study characteristics were analyzed.
RESULTS
Database searching identified 1,379 nonduplicate citations, resulting in 203 unique, accessible articles for full-text review. Of these and with articles from hand searching added, 36 articles were classified as scholarship (30 as research) and 85 as nonscholarship. Of the 36 scholarship and 85 nonscholarship articles, respectively, 21 (58%) and 44 (52%) had an author from the United States or Canada, 8 (22%) and 11 (13%) had an author from a low- or middle-income country, and 16 (44%) and 43 (51%) had an author affiliated with a regulatory authority. Agencies from high-income countries were featured most often (scholarship: 28/60 [47%]; nonscholarship: 70/101 [69%]). Six (17%) scholarship articles reported receiving funding. All 30 research studies were cross-sectional or retrospective, 12 (40%) reported only analysis of accreditation documents, and 5 (17%) attempted to link accreditation with educational outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS
Limited evidence exists to support current UME accreditation practices or guide accreditation system creation or enhancement. More research is required to optimize UME accreditation systems' value for students, programs, and society.
Topics: Accreditation; Canada; Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Education, Medical, Undergraduate; Guidelines as Topic; United States
PubMed: 31274521
DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002857 -
Annals of Emergency Medicine Apr 2022The objectives of this study were to describe the reach and adoption of Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) program and care processes instituted at...
STUDY OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were to describe the reach and adoption of Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) program and care processes instituted at accredited geriatric emergency departments (EDs).
METHODS
We analyzed a cross-section of a cohort of US EDs that received GEDA from May 2018 to March 2021. We obtained data from the American College of Emergency Physicians and publicly available sources. Data included GEDA level, geographic location, urban/rural designation, and care processes instituted. Frequencies and proportions and median and interquartile ranges were used to summarize categorical and continuous data, respectively.
RESULTS
Over the study period, 225 US geriatric ED accreditations were issued and included in our analysis-14 Level 1, 21 Level 2, and 190 Level 3 geriatric EDs; 5 geriatric EDs reapplied and received higher-level accreditation after initial accreditation at a lower level. Only 9 geriatric EDs were in rural regions. There was significant heterogeneity in protocols enacted at geriatric EDs; minimizing urinary catheter use and fall prevention were the most common.
CONCLUSION
There has been rapid growth in geriatric EDs, driven by Level 3 accreditation. Most geriatric EDs are in urban areas, indicating the potential need for expansion beyond these areas. Future research evaluating the impact of GEDA on health care utilization and patient-oriented outcomes is needed.
Topics: Accreditation; Aged; Cohort Studies; Emergency Service, Hospital; Humans; Rural Population; United States
PubMed: 34389196
DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2021.06.013 -
Healthcare Quarterly (Toronto, Ont.) Jul 2022External, third-party evaluations are undertaken across every industry, including healthcare, to assess performance against an established set of standards. The...
External, third-party evaluations are undertaken across every industry, including healthcare, to assess performance against an established set of standards. The formality, rigour, timing and outcomes associated with these evaluations vary, and models throughout the world are evolving to meet changing needs. This is aligned with the historic shift from periodic pre-determined accreditations to healthcare organizations being "accreditation ready" every day. Accreditation Canada's continuous quality improvement model empowers and enables organizations to foster a culture and practice of continuous quality improvement.
Topics: Accreditation; Delivery of Health Care; Humans; Quality Improvement
PubMed: 36153683
DOI: 10.12927/hcq.2022.26890 -
American Journal of Pharmaceutical... Dec 2018To compare the different philosophies, emphases and processes of national and international accreditation paths available to pharmacy programs in Gulf Cooperation... (Review)
Review
To compare the different philosophies, emphases and processes of national and international accreditation paths available to pharmacy programs in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. To identify engagement of GCC pharmacy programs with International Pharmacy Accreditation or Certification (IPAC) and the outcome advantages of IPAC compared to other national accreditation standards. National quality standards across the GCC countries are similarly structured but in different stages of development. Pharmacy specific standards are absent. Of the 44 institutions identified offering pharmacy degrees, only three out of 28 of those in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and all but two out of 15 elsewhere in the GCC, have national program-level accreditation. Nine of the institutions have IPAC via either the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education-International Services Program (ACPE-ISP), the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP) or the German Accreditation Agency in Health and Social Sciences (AHPGS). None of the institutions have sought accreditation from the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC). IPAC may serve as a tool to provide specific recognition of the quality of pharmacy programs and to enhance the quality of pharmacy education in the region. In the absence of national bodies to accredit pharmacy initial training degrees, IPAC has become increasingly popular in the GCC countries. There are distinct regional differences in uptake and choice of IPAC. IPAC may serve as a tool to provide specific recognition of the quality of pharmacy programs and to enhance the quality of pharmacy education in the region in the absence of an unmet for pharmacy-specific national accreditation.
Topics: Accreditation; Australia; Canada; Education, Pharmacy; Humans; International Cooperation; Saudi Arabia
PubMed: 30643306
DOI: 10.5688/ajpe5980 -
BMC Medical Education Sep 2020The accreditation of medical educational programs is thought to be important in supporting program improvement, ensuring the quality of the education, and promoting... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
The accreditation of medical educational programs is thought to be important in supporting program improvement, ensuring the quality of the education, and promoting diversity, equity, and population health. It has long been recognized that accreditation systems will need to shift their focus from processes to outcomes, particularly those related to the end goals of medical education: the creation of broadly competent, confident professionals and the improvement of health for individuals and populations. An international group of experts in accreditation convened in 2013 to discuss this shift.
MAIN TEXT
Participants unequivocally supported the inclusion of more outcomes-based criteria in medical education accreditation, specifically those related to the societal accountability of the institutions in which the education occurs. Meaningful and feasible outcome metrics, however, are hard to identify. They are regionally variable, often temporally remote from the educational program, difficult to measure, and susceptible to confounding factors. The group identified the importance of health outcomes of the clinical milieu in which education takes place in influencing outcomes of its graduates. The ability to link clinical data with individual practice over time is becoming feasible with large repositories of assessment data linked to patient outcomes. This was seen as a key opportunity to provide more continuous oversight and monitoring of program impact. The discussants identified several risks that might arise should outcomes measures completely replace process issues. Some outcomes can be measured only by proxy process elements, and some learner experience issues may best be measured by such process elements: in brief, the "how" still matters.
CONCLUSIONS
Accrediting bodies are beginning to view the use of practice outcome measures as an important step toward better continuous educational quality improvement. The use of outcomes will present challenges in data collection, aggregation, and interpretation. Large datasets that capture clinical outcomes, experience of care, and health system performance may enable the assessment of multiple dimensions of program quality, assure the public that the social contract is being upheld, and allow identification of exemplary programs such that all may improve. There remains a need to retain some focus on process, particularly those related to the learner experience.
Topics: Accreditation; Education, Medical; Humans; Quality Improvement; Social Responsibility
PubMed: 32981523
DOI: 10.1186/s12909-020-02123-3 -
Human Resources For Health May 2021Increasing evidence suggests that sustainable delivery of interprofessional education (IPE) has the potential to lead to interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP),...
BACKGROUND
Increasing evidence suggests that sustainable delivery of interprofessional education (IPE) has the potential to lead to interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP), which in turn has the potential to lead to enhanced healthcare systems and improved patient-centered care health outcomes. To enhance IPE in Canada, the Accreditation of Interprofessional Health Education (AIPHE) project initiated collaborative efforts among accrediting organizations of six health professions to embed IPE language into their respective accreditation standards. To further understand the impact of the AIPHE project, this study evaluated the accountability of the IPE language currently embedded in Canadian health professions' accreditation standards documents and examined whether such language spanned the five accreditation standards domains identified in the AIPHE project.
METHODS
We conducted a comparative content analysis to identify and examine IPE language within the "accountable" statements in the current accreditation standards for 11 Canadian health professions that met our eligibility criteria.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A total of 77 IPE-relevant accountable statements were identified across 13 accreditation standards documents for the 11 health professions. The chiropractic, pharmacy, and physiotherapy documents represented nearly 50% (38/77) of all accountable statements. The accountable statements for pharmacy, dentistry, dietetics, and nursing (registered) spanned across three-to-four accreditation standards domains. The remaining nine professions' statements referred mostly to "Students" and "Educational program." Furthermore, the majority of accreditation standards documents failed to provide a definition of IPE, and those that did, were inconsistent across health professions.
CONCLUSIONS
It was encouraging to see frequent reference to IPE within the accreditation standards of the health professions involved in this study. The qualitative findings, however, suggest that the emphasis of these accountable statements is mainly on the students and educational program, potentially compromising the sustainability and development, implementation, and evaluation of this frequently misunderstood pedagogical approach. The findings and exemplary IPE-relevant accountable statements identified in this paper should be of interest to all relevant stakeholders including those countries, where IPE accreditation is still emerging, as a means to accelerate and strengthen achieving desired educational and health outcomes.
Topics: Accreditation; Canada; Health Occupations; Humans; Interprofessional Education; Interprofessional Relations
PubMed: 33985513
DOI: 10.1186/s12960-021-00611-1 -
Hospital accreditation processes in Saudi Arabia: a thematic analysis of hospital staff experiences.BMJ Open Quality Jan 2022Hospital accreditation by an international organisation can play an important role in health quality and safety. However, little is known about how managers and...
BACKGROUND
Hospital accreditation by an international organisation can play an important role in health quality and safety. However, little is known about how managers and front-line employees experience and perceive the effects of accreditation. Their views could inform quality improvement processes and procedures.
OBJECTIVE
To explore perceptions of employees at the managerial level on the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation process and its impact on quality of patient care in Saudi Arabian JCI-accredited hospitals.
METHODS
We undertook a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to explore the perspectives of senior staff from three accredited public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Interviews were transcribed prior to thematic analysis.
RESULTS
Twenty managers participated in the interviews. The following inter-related themes emerged concerning the JCI accreditation process and its impact on quality of patient care: drivers for the change; the plan for the change; the process of the change; maintaining changes post-accreditation and patients' issues. Participants were positive in their accounts of: drivers for the change; planning for the change needed to achieve accreditation and managing patients' issues. However, participants reported less favourably on: the process of the change; and maintaining changes post-accreditation.
CONCLUSION
The planning stage was perceived as the easiest component of JCI accreditation. Implementing and maintaining changes post-accreditation that demonstrably promote patient safety and quality of care was perceived as more difficult. When planning for accreditation, institutions need to incorporate strategies to ensure that improvements to care continue beyond the accreditation period.
Topics: Accreditation; Hospitals; Humans; Personnel, Hospital; Quality Improvement; Saudi Arabia
PubMed: 34980590
DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001652 -
Annals of Vascular Surgery Jan 2017The rise in office-based interventional vascular laboratories in recent years was prompted in part by expedient ambulatory patient experience and favorable outpatient... (Review)
Review
The rise in office-based interventional vascular laboratories in recent years was prompted in part by expedient ambulatory patient experience and favorable outpatient procedural reimbursement. While studies have shown that clinical safety and treatment efficacy can be achieved in office-based vascular facilities, critics have raised various concerns due to inconsistent patient care standards and lack of organizational oversight to ensure optimal patient outcome. Available literature showed widely varied clinical outcomes which were partly attributable to nonuniform standards in reporting clinical efficacy and adverse events. In this report, various concerns and pitfalls of office-based interventional vascular centers are discussed. Strategies to improve patient care delivery in office-based laboratories including accreditations which serve as external validation of processes to ensure patient care and safety are also mentioned. Finally, the requirements to obtain accreditation in an office-based practice and the differences between these nationally recognized accrediting organizations are discussed herein.
Topics: Accreditation; Ambulatory Care Facilities; Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; Certification; Clinical Competence; Endovascular Procedures; Humans; Patient Safety; Quality Indicators, Health Care; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Vascular Surgical Procedures
PubMed: 27554695
DOI: 10.1016/j.avsg.2016.06.010 -
Journal of Women's Health (2002) May 2015This commentary responds to the assertions by Foreman et al. that credentialing of women's health (WH) fellows by the American Board of Medical Subspecialties and... (Review)
Review
This commentary responds to the assertions by Foreman et al. that credentialing of women's health (WH) fellows by the American Board of Medical Subspecialties and accreditation of current and future WH fellowships by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education would improve the health and healthcare of women by increasing the number of primary care providers competent to meet a growing clinical need. They speculate that such accreditation would raise the status of WH fellowships, increase the number of applicants, and result in more academic leaders in WH. They assert that curricular deficiencies in WH exist in physician training and that WH fellowships are the preferred means of training physicians to care for midlife women. We review the evidence to support or refute these claims and conclude that accrediting WH fellowships would not have the forecasted outcomes and would jeopardize the success of current WH fellowships.
Topics: Accreditation; Clinical Competence; Education, Medical, Graduate; Fellowships and Scholarships; Female; Humans; Societies, Medical; Women's Health
PubMed: 25919589
DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2015.5289