The following sources have informed the development of a QA system for Simulation-Based Education in Scotland. Each recognises the need to ensure educational standards are being continuously improved and updated for all health care practitioners.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
The NMC updated their QA framework for education in 2016. The principles for the framework include Transparency, Clarity, Utility, Accountability and Improvement. The standards for the approved programmes (over 100) it runs informs their role as a professional regulator rather than an educational regulator which links into the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for higher education. The NMC regulates within a ‘right touch’ regulation system set out by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Right touch regulation is defined as being proportionate, consistent, targeted, transparent, accountable and agile. In order to provide public protection as a professional regulator it delivers QA through four areas, as follows:
- Approval against standards
- Education reviews
- Responding to concerns
- Reporting and sharing evidence
NMC QA Framework for nursing and midwife education
The Health Professions Council (HPC)
The HPC is a regulator which keeps a register of health care practitioners who practice to an agreed standard. It is a statutory body which approves educational programmes necessary ‘to achieve standards of proficiency’. It currently approves 94 education providers providing 424 separate programmes. The following professions are included: arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dietitians, hearing aid dispensers, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, practitioner psychologists, prosthetists/orthotists, radiographers, social workers in England and speech and language therapists. The HPC is currently responding to the latest Enhancing Quality In Practice Framework (EQuIP).
HPC Healthcare Education QA Framework
The General Medical Council (GMC)
The GMC QA Framework covers both undergraduate and postgraduate education and links into Promoting Excellence the standards for medical education and training
The QA system clarifies the role of NHS providers, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) Postgraduate providers and Royal Colleges in Quality Assurance, Quality Management and Quality Control.
The Higher Education Academy (HEA) UK
The HEA UK Professionals Standards Framework links standards of educational activity to core knowledge requirements about education and professional values with a focus on continuous improvement.
HEA UK Professionals Standards Framework
The Academy of Medical Educators (AoME)
The AoME set out to become the standard setting body for medical educators in the UK. In 2009, it achieved this aim with the publication of the Professional Standards that define the level of competence that medical educators should achieve at each point in their careers. The core domains they identified include
- Designing and planning learning
- Teaching and facilitating learning
- Assessment of learning
- Educational research and scholarship
- Educational management and leadership
Skills Development Scotland (SDS)
SDS has developed an action plan template which is linked to improvement.
The organisation covers a wide variety of opportunities to enhance the workforce.
The Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH)
This UK organisation was established in 2012-13.
It has developed a standards Framework using an expert panel which was published in 2015 and focuses on four themes with 21 associated standards:
- Resources
- Faculty
- Activity and
- Technical personnel