Quality Assurance in Health‐care Education. A School‐based Strategy
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| Pages | 19-25 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889410071096 |
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
| Author | Angela Hawtin |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Background
The setting for this case study is the School of
Healthcare within Liverpool John Moores
University. Prior to describing the initiatives
which have been undertaken within the School, it
may be useful to provide some information on its
background and organization.
The school became part of the University (then
The Liverpool Polytechnic) in April 1991,
following the amalgamation of the Liverpool
School of Nursing & Midwifery and Central
Mersey College of Health Studies, and employs
some 90 academic and 40 support staff. More
recently, the School has begun to develop its
portfolio to include programmes for a wider range
of health-care professionals. The funding and
resourcing for these programmes comes from
different areas. In terms of pre-registration and
some post-registration programmes, funding is
derived from regional contracts. These contracts
will be due for renewal over the next few years
and changes which have taken place within the
National Health Service and regional health
authorities, mean that the method of contracting
for education and training remains unclear.
However, a number of possibilities are being
considered which include the formation of local
consortia of health-care providers which will deal
directly with higher education organizations
(HEOs).
Other post-registration programmes for nurses
and midwives, and those primarily aimed at other
health-care professionals, remain outside the
contract and will therefore be funded either by
seconding employees or students themselves.
Nursing and midwifery are essentially practice-
based professions and so a significant part of the
teaching, learning and assessment within the
programmes will take place outside the classroom
in clinical and/or community settings. Nurses and
midwives, before being allowed to register with
the United Kingdom Central Council (UKCC)
must demonstrate that they have achieved the
competences set out in Rule 18 or 18a of The
Nurses Midwives and Health Visitors Approval
Order No. 873. This could be termed the
“minimum standard” required in health-care
education.
We must also consider the influence of quality
audit and quality assessment by the Higher
Education Quality Council (HEQC) and the
Higher Education Funding Council for England
(HEFCE). At the moment, HEFCE only assesses
what it funds or intends to fund and this is only a
small part of the School’s portfolio. HEQC audits
quality assurance at organizational level.
Organizational quality assurance procedures will
clearly have an impact on any School strategy.
However, I hope the preceding paragraphs
show that the impetus for the development of this
initiative derives less from concern regarding
external assessment than the aim to be responsible
and accountable for the quality of health-care
education and therefore, ultimately, for the quality
of professional practice within health-care.
Quality for its own sake is something which
every teacher should be aiming to achieve.
The benefits of a quality system to the individual
can include feelings of control over what is
achieved and in what manner, influence over
decisions and goals, personal power and
autonomy.
However, the benefits of establishing a total
quality system to an institution in a competitive
environment cannot be underestimated. The
present climate means that we need to address this
issue, both in terms of renewal of existing
VOLUME 2 NUMBER 3
1994
19
Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 2 No. 3, 1994, pp. 19-25
© MCB University Press, 0968-4883
Quality Assurance in
Health-care Education
A School-based Strategy
Angela Hawtin
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