National Accreditation Body Research Articles

The European Board of Interventional Radiology Examination: A Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey.

The Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Society of Europe established the European Board of Interventional Radiology (EBIR) as an international examination in Interventional Radiology (IR), in 2010. The main objective of this study was to examine candidates' variables which could influence examination success. The secondary objective was to evaluate candidate feedback. This study was a cross-sectional web-based survey incorporating 30 questions which reviewed candidates' demographics; use of English language; education; and radiology training. Free-text responses provided perspective on the examination process and any potential career implications. This survey was distributed via SurveygizmoTM and emailed to 227 candidates, and the results were then anonymised and analysed. A total of 115 candidates responded to the survey. 4.4% (N=5/115) of candidates were women, and 38.3% (N=44/115) of candidates were fluent in English. Over 45.2% (N=52/115) of the respondents achieved a distinction, or >70% equivalent in their medical degree, and 60.8% (N=70/115) achieved some form of higher degree after medical school. 54.8% (N=63/115) spent time in other medical specialties, of which the majority (33.8%, N=39/115) was in surgery. 67.5% (N=77/114) completed a dedicated fellowship in IR. 61.9% (70/113) felt the EBIR qualification helped their career, for example with academic promotion or increased clinical privileges. EBIR applicants were predominantly male (>95%). Clinical training, prior to radiology training, was very common in this cohort. Overall, most candidates expressed satisfaction with the examination process, and many felt this qualification helped their career. The recent recognition by national accreditation bodies should hopefully improve the profile of the examination greatly.

Accreditation of Medical Laboratories - System, Process, Benefits for Labs.

SummaryOne and key of the priorities in laboratory medicine is improvement of quality management system for patient safety. Quality in the health care is tightly connected to the level of excellence of the health care provided in relation to the current level of knowledge and technical development. Accreditation is an effective way to demonstrate competence of the laboratory, a tool to recognize laboratories world-wide, is linked to periodical audits, to stimulate the maintenance and improvement of the quality, which leads to high standard of services for clients (patients, health care providers, etc.). The strategic plans of IFCC and EFLM include focusing on accreditation of labs based on ISO standards and cooperation with European Accreditation and national accreditation bodies. IFCC and EFLM recognised that ISO 15189:2012 Medical laboratories – Requirements for quality and competence, encompasses all the assessment criteria specified in the policy of quality. The last version is oriented to process approach with detailed division and clearly defined requirements. The accreditation of labs improves facilitation of accurate and rapid diagnostics, efficiency of treatment and reduction of errors in the laboratory process. Accreditation is not about who the best is, but who has a system of standard procedures with aim to improve the quality and patient safety. Quality system is about people, with people and for people.

ISO 15189 Accreditation: Navigation Between Quality Management and Patient Safety.

SummaryAccreditation is a valuable resource for clinical laboratories and the development of an International Standard for their accreditation represented a milestone on the path towards improved quality and safety in laboratory medicine. The recent revision of the International Standard, ISO 15189, has further strengthened its value not only for improving the quality system of a clinical laboratory but also for better answering the request for competence, focus on customers’ needs and ultimate value of laboratory services. Although in some countries more general standards such as ISO 9001 for quality systems or ISO 17025 for testing laboratories are still used, there is increasing recognition of the value of ISO 15189 as the most appropriate and useful standard for the accreditation of medical laboratories. In fact, only this International Standard recognizes the importance of all steps of the total testing process, namely extra-analytical phases, the need to focus on technical competence in addition to quality systems, and the focus on customers’ needs. However, the number of accredited laboratories largely varies between European countries and also major differences affect the approaches to accreditation promoted by the national bodies. In particular, some national accreditation bodies perpetuate the use of fixed scopes, while the European co-operation for accreditation (EA) and the European Federation of Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group promote the use of flexible scopes. Major issues in clinical laboratory accreditation are the verification of examination procedures for imprecision, trueness and diagnostic accuracy and for estimating measurement uncertainty. In addition, quality indicators (QIs) are a fundamental requirement of the ISO 15189 International Standard.

Online Accreditation Process and DAK Management Information System (DAK-MIS) General Directorate for Accreditation of Kosovo

General Directorate for Accreditation of Kosovo (DAK) is the only National Accreditation Body in the Republic of Kosovo, based on Law No. 05 / L-117 approved in the Kosovo Assembly on 20.12.2016 and published in the Official Newspaper of the Republic of Kosovo, No. 2/12 January 2017, in accordance with international standards, assesses technical competences of the Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB)s that deals with activities such as: testing, calibration, certification and inspection both in public and private sector. Till now application for accreditation process and all other procedures for accreditation of CABs are carried out manually, and all the documents of the application and the receipt of the certificate of accreditation are conducted in the offices of DAK manually not using an appropriate Management Information System, DAK-MIS System. Through DAK Management Information System (DAK-MIS), customers will get and proceed all needed documents online, starting from: Application for accreditation, Application review, Cost estimates and Accreditation contract, Appointment of Lead Assessor, Preliminary visit, Appointment of assessment team, Document and records review, Assessment, Reporting, Follow up assessment, Decision, Accreditation surveillance, Renewal of accreditation, Extending accreditation, Extraordinary visits, Suspending, withdrawing or reducing the accreditation through this database and getting finally the official document of accreditation. The only condition for the customers is to have internet access, following the accreditation procedure online on the new system. DAK-MIS System will facilitate the work of DAK and CABs informing through this paper the CAB's and other Interested Parties about DAK- MIS database.

Opinion of policy makers regarding the need of 'global accreditation' of undergraduate medical education in Bangladesh

Accreditation of undergraduate medical education has been practicing worldwide in developed and developing countries. Fundamental ideas of this program is to ensure incorporation of ongoing global developments, evidence based scientific study and maintenance of minimum basic standard in education for population health and safety. WHO and WFME have been addressing for global standards in medical education and global accreditation of medical institutes for long time. Worldwide many countries have been responded to this call of global accreditation of medical colleges and medical education with their own context and experiencing benefits This exploratory cross sectional study has been conducted during the period of july-2014 to june-2015 to explore the opinion from key informants of medical education and views from young medical graduates. Data were collected from twenty one in-depth interviewee. Key informants stressed the necessity of an autonomous constitutional national independent accreditation body, faculty development and teacher evaluation, basic minimum resources in all listed medical colleges. Study recommended to accelerate the activities to establish national accreditation body for undergraduate medical education which will make way to achieve global accreditation in Bangladesh in coming future.Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.7(2) 2016: 9-16

УЧАСТИЕ ЛАБОРАТОРИЙ В МЕЖЛАБОРАТОРНЫХ СЛИЧИТЕЛЬНЫХ (СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫХ) ИСПЫТАНИЯХ. ОСНОВНЫЕ ТРЕБОВАНИЯ. ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ ТРЕБОВАНИЙ. ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ

The topical issues of participation of laboratories in interlaboratory comparison tests, the requirements of the international standards ISO, requirements of transnational and national standards ISO, the national accreditation body are considered. The progress on the revision of the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and the order of the transition to the updated version of 2017 are described. The information about changes in the approach of the national accreditation body to organizations of interlaboratory comparison tests (ICT) is given. The immediate prospects for the russian providers of interlaboratory comparison tests (ICT) and testing laboratories accredited in the national accreditation system are defined.

Resident education in orthopaedic trauma: the future role of competency-based medical education.

As residency training programmes around the globe move towards competency-based medical education (CBME), there is a need to review current teaching and assessment practices as they relate to education in orthopaedic trauma. Assessment is the cornerstone of CBME, as it not only helps to determine when a trainee is fit to practice independently, but it also provides feedback on performance and guides the development of competence. Although a standardised core knowledge base for trauma care has been developed by the leading national accreditation bodies and international agencies that teach and perform research in orthopaedic trauma, educators have not yet established optimal methods for assessing trainees' performance in managing orthopaedic trauma patients. This review describes the existing knowledge from the literature on assessment in orthopaedic trauma and highlights initiatives that have recently been undertaken towards CBME in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In order to support a CBME approach, programmes need to improve the frequency and quality of assessments and improve on current formative and summative feedback techniques in order to enhance resident education in orthopaedic trauma. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2016;98-B:1320-5.

Accreditation process in European countries - an EFLM survey.

Accreditation is a valuable resource for medical laboratories. The development of quality systems based on ISO 15189 has taken place in many laboratories in the European countries but data about accreditation remain scarce. The EFLM Working Group "Accreditation and ISO/CEN standards" conducted a survey that reviews the current state of the accreditation process in European countries. An on-line questionnaire was addressed to delegates of 39 EFLM scientific societies in March 2014. One answer by country was taken into account. The survey was dealing with mandatory status, number of accredited medical laboratories in each country, possibility of flexible scope and concerned medical fields. The status of point-of-care testing (POCT) in each country was also studied. Twenty-nine responses (74%) were registered. All the assessed countries (100%) have begun an accreditation process in various ways. All the national accreditation bodies (NAB) offer or are working to offer an ISO 15189 accreditation. The accreditation process most often concerns all phases of the examination and various medical fields. Medical laboratories are responsible for POCT in 20 (69%) countries. The accreditation process for POCT, according to ISO 15189 and ISO 22870, is also developing. While there are several variations in the approaches to accreditation of medical laboratories in the European countries, the ISO 15189 accreditation project has been widely accepted. The use of a unique standard and the cooperation among countries due to scientific societies, EFLM, accreditation bodies and EA enable laboratory professionals to move toward uniform implementation of the accreditation concept.

Developing hospital accreditation standards in Uganda.

Whereas accreditation is widely used as a tool to improve quality of healthcare in the developed world, it is a concept not well adapted in most developing countries for a host of reasons, including insufficient incentives, insufficient training and a shortage of human and material resources. The purpose of this paper is to describe refining use and outcomes of a self-assessment hospital accreditation tool developed for a resource-limited context. We invited 60 stakeholders to review a set of standards (from which a self-assessment tool was developed), and subsequently refined them to include 485 standards in 7 domains. We then invited 60 hospitals to test them. A study team traveled to each of the 40 hospitals that agreed to participate providing training and debrief the self-assessment. The study was completed in 8 weeks. Hospital self-assessments revealed hospitals were remarkably open to frank rating of their performance and willing to rank all 485 measures. Good performance was measured in outreach programs, availability of some types of equipment and running water, 24-h staff calls systems, clinical guidelines and waste segregation. Poor performance was measured in care for the vulnerable, staff living quarters, physician performance reviews, patient satisfaction surveys and sterilizing equipment. We have demonstrated the feasibility of a self-assessment approach to hospital standards in low-income country setting. This low-cost approach may be used as a good precursor to establishing a national accreditation body, as indicated by the Ministry's efforts to take the next steps. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The influence of sky conditions on the standardized calibration of pyranometers and on the measurement of global solar irradiation

Global solar irradiance measurement is used for applications such as verifying satellite measurements, studying the distribution and variation of the radiation received or estimating the energy yield of solar plants. This measurement is directly influenced by the reference calibration coefficient and uncertainty of the field pyranometer used. The radiometer calibration laboratory of CENER is accredited by ENAC (Spanish National Accreditation Body) since 2010 according to ISO 9847:1992 for the calibration of field pyranometers via comparison to a reference pyranometer. The accreditation’s scope covers calibrations “type Ia” (outdoor horizontal calibrations for meteorological and resource measurements, part 5.2.2, annex B.2). For the outdoor calibration, the methodology takes three different sky conditions into account: stable cloudless sky conditions, unstable sky conditions with some clouds or cloudy sky conditions. The classification criteria described by the standard have been enhanced for an easier application, establishing additional radiometric conditions, especially for unstable sky conditions with some clouds. Detailed criteria are based on CENER’s experience in solar collector testing and on the experimental CENER BSRN station (Baseline Surface Radiation Network) measurements and total sky camera images. In this study, several calibration coefficient results have been analyzed in order to validate the three different methodologies regarding the sky conditions mentioned before. The calibration coefficient can be slightly different depending on the sky conditions and the calibration methodology; therefore global solar irradiance measurements can differ too. The influence of this dependency has been evaluated in order to estimate the monthly and yearly global solar irradiation.

Student involvement in the Egyptian quality assurance system

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the extent and the quality of student involvement in the quality assurance process (QAP) in Egyptian higher education institutions (HEIs). Design/methodology/approach – In this study, two qualitative methods were used to explore the extent and the quality of student involvement; these were focus groups and interviews. The aim of the study was achieved by collecting data from samples of students and staff members belonging to 14 public and private universities and institutes in Egypt. Findings – The results indicated that students were not efficiently involved in the QAP at the Egyptian HEIs. They were involved in responding to QA-related questionnaires to a large extent in the case when the HEI was on its way to be accredited or if it was accredited already. It revealed that students were not widely involved in committees regarding QAP. They were invited to meet the external review panel members that were sent by the national accreditation body, but they did not participate in writing the self-evaluation report or even reviewing it. Three factors influencing the extent of student involvement are highlighted. Originality/value – The paper provides an empirical insight of the extent and the quality of student involvement in Egyptian HEIs. The importance of this study comes from the fact that after the Egypt’s uprising in January 25, 2011; community pressures appeared to precede positive changes, specifically in the educational sector. From that point of time, higher education (HE) students wanted to be seen as partners in developing their HEIs. Therefore, this study introduces a set of recommendations to increase student involvement to three main Egyptian institutions; these are the ministry of HE, the national quality assurance body and the HEIs.

Field Education for Clinical Social Work Practice: Best Practices and Contemporary Challenges

Field education is arguably the most significant component of the social work curriculum in preparing competent, effective, and ethical clinical social workers. Students and alumni characterize it as such, and national accrediting bodies, both in the United States and internationally, recognize its crucial impact on the quality of social work services delivered to the public. In addition, there is likely more scholarship and research conducted on field education than on any other component of the curriculum. And yet, field educators anecdotally describe a crisis in their ability to implement the best pedagogical practices for students. This paper will discuss the developing evidence-base highlighting best practices for field education, the changing context of field education, and analyze current challenges and potential responses.

Flexible scope for ISO 15189 accreditation: a guidance prepared by the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group Accreditation and ISO/CEN standards (WG-A/ISO).

The recent revision of ISO15189 has further strengthened its position as the standard for accreditation for medical laboratories. Both for laboratories and their customers it is important that the scope of such accreditation is clear. Therefore the European co-operation for accreditation (EA) demands that the national bodies responsible for accreditation describe the scope of every laboratory accreditation in a way that leaves no room for doubt about the range of competence of the particular laboratories. According to EA recommendations scopes may be fixed, mentioning every single test that is part of the accreditation, or flexible, mentioning all combinations of medical field, examination type and materials for which the laboratory is competent. Up to now national accreditation bodies perpetuate use of fixed scopes, partly by inertia, partly out of fear that a too flexible scope may lead to over-valuation of the competence of laboratories, most countries only use fixed scopes. The EA however promotes use of flexible scopes, since this allows for more readily innovation, which contributes to quality in laboratory medicine. In this position paper, the Working Group Accreditation and ISO/CEN Standards belonging to the Quality and Regulation Committee of the EFLM recommends using an approach that has led to successful introduction of the flexible scope for ISO15189 accreditation as intended in EA-4/17 in The Netherlands. The approach is risk-based, discipline and competence-based, and focuses on defining a uniform terminology transferable across the borders of scientific disciplines, laboratories and countries.

The International Standards for Solar Thermal Collectors and Components as a Medium of Quality Assurance

Within this publication, a detailed overview of the national and international solar thermal standards is made. The various tests are described and a cross-reference list for comparing the different standards is given. Moreover, a certification model is presented and the advantage of third-party assessment is carried out. The requirement for a solar thermal test laboratory to conduct independent third-party assessment by means of an ISO/IEC17025 accreditation is given. Finally, the concept of a quality system for solar thermal markets is explained and major advantages are outlined.Solar thermal systems and their components are described in various national and international standards. In Europe, the standard EN12975 defines the regulations and requirements for solar thermal collectors. The standard EN12976 is established for theevaluation of factory-made solar thermal systems. T e EN12977 is the state of the art standard for the evaluation of custom build systems. Nowadays in Libya the standard ISO9806 for solar collectors and the standard ISO9459 for domestic water heating systems def ne the regulations and requirements for solar thermal collectors and systems. In the meanwhile, the empowered Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Certif cation Body is under construction. T is body is working now to set the minimum requirements of the testing facilities of solar thermal systems.The international standard for collector testing is ISO9806 and the standard ISO9459 Part 2, 4, 5 for domestic water heating systems. Within the year 2013, a revision of the ISO9806 will be published and, for the first time, a consistent harmonized standard for the main solar thermal markets will be set in force. Besides the various standards for solar thermal products, a meaningful element for quality assurance and customer protection is third party certification. Third party certification involves an independent assessment, declaring that specif ed requirements regarding a product are fulfilled. In a certification process based on specif ed certification rules an authorized certification body is confirming that a solar thermal product has passed performance tests, reliability tests and further requirements according to the standards. In Europe, a certification body holds an accreditation according to EN45011. At the international level the standard ISO/IEC17065 is in force.Test results as a basis for product certification are determined by solar thermal test laboratories. The implementation and the business operation of such a solar thermal test laboratory is an important element within the national / regional solar thermal market. To ensure the quality of the products and to attend the role of an observer on the market, the test facility has to fulfill a number of requirements. Besides the necessary technical equipment and the implementation of tests in accordance with the various national and international standards, the laboratory shall realize a quality management system to guarantee the qualityof tests and services. Based on the technical equipment, the testing scope and an implemented Quality Management System (QMS), the test laboratory can achieve an accreditation according to ISO/IEC17025 as basis for independent third party testing. Independent testing and evaluation of solar thermal collectors and components like hot water stores and controllers off ers an important medium for quality assurance. To guarantee a high degree of product quality and consumer protection a quality system for the solar thermal market is necessary. Core of the quality assurance of a functioning solar thermal market are the national standards body, which is developing standards and regulations as a working basis in technical committees, the national metrology institute that guarantees the traceability of measurements on fundamental and natural constants, and finally the national accreditation body which ensures the conformity of the various actors to a specif c standard.Laboratories work closely with the certification authorities and apply the developed specif c norms and standards. The certification bodies must ensure the conformance of their test laboratories with the standard ISO/IEC17025, which includes the quality standard ISO 9001:2008 and also include additional requirements.T e traceability of the metrics of solar thermal testing laboratories is usually made with the help of calibration laboratories that are specialized in certain measurements. Those are also accredited and ensure the traceability of their measurements to the national meteorology institute. Other stakeholders are the group of importers and exporters and foreign investors who are on the national market in entrepreneurial activities, as well as the group of consumer organizations that represent the interests of customers. By means of good networking of stakeholders and focusing on the quality process, a high-quality and flourishing solar thermalmarket can be created.

한국 치위생학 교육 평가인증제도의 필요성

The increasing cross-border mobility of dental school or dental hygiene students, educators, practitioners, programs and providers takes challenges for existing national quality assurance and accreditation frameworks and bodies, as well as for the systems for recognizing foreign qualifications. The new dental hygiene accreditation system was introduced to encourage the improvement of dental hygiene programs, to ensure the quality of education and, most of all, to establish an internationally compatible system of evaluation and accreditation. The accreditation procedure takes 1 year to complete. The result of the accreditation is released after evaluation via self-study report, site visit, preliminary draft report, responses from the institution and the results from the conciliation and review committees. The result from the accreditation procedur e is either ‘accreditation’ or ‘no accreditation’. Accredited schools receive one of several statuses following the evaluation. These are next general review, interim report and interim visit or su spension. Dental healthcare quality is not improved instantaneously, but instead gradually through continuous communication within the dental field. For this accreditation system to be successful, the following are essential: the accreditation agency should adop t hygiene education accreditation; it needs to become financially independent and managed efficiently; the autonomy and regulations surrounding the system need to be balanced; the professionalism of the system is ensured; and the dental field which includes not only dental program, but also hygiene program, needs to play an active role in the operation of the system.

Structured Abstracts: Best Practices in Writing and Reviewing Abstracts for Publication and Presentation

Abstract Medical, nursing, and other allied health professional education institutions are expected by national accrediting bodies and associations to emphasize not only basic science and clinical ...

Regulation and accreditation requirements for preceptor use in undergraduate education.

Nurse preceptors are widely used in pre-licensure RN education to facilitate the educational process. Often, these preceptors are staff nurses employed by clinical agencies. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines for qualifications, roles and responsibilities, or best practices. Systematic website review was conducted of all Boards of Nursing and nursing accrediting bodies in the United States and Canada. Seven categories of information were identified: preceptor qualifications, faculty and nursing program role, curriculum placement, written policies, ratios, orientation, and preceptor availability. Research is needed to document issues and current practices to create a model of best practices in preceptor orientation and use, as well as faculty supervision in prelicensure nursing education. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2014;45(x):xxx-xxx.

A Spanish Inter-laboratory Comparison on the Characterization of Sterilization Autoclaves

Sterilization autoclaves are devices used to sterilize equipment and supplies; their users require a periodic determination of their performance to ensure that the required temperature is reached and maintained for the predefined time interval. Within the ENAC (Entidad Nacional de Acreditacion, Spanish national accreditation body) Temperature and Humidity Technical Subcommittee, it was decided to carry out an inter-laboratory comparison on the characterization of sterilization autoclaves aiming to demonstrate the equivalence among the test procedures of the different participants. This paper presents the data processing and the results of this comparison that showed some discrepancies in the stability and uniformity measurements due to different parameter definitions and a probable underestimation of some uncertainty sources. The results show good agreement among the participants in the estimation of the set-point correction, while the estimation of the device stability and uniformity was not compatible in some cases. The use of wired or wireless sensors did not bias the results, but the laboratories that used pt-100 obtained results that underestimated the value of the thermal stability, probably due to their higher thermal mass and response time.

High-Fidelity Simulation in Nursing Education: A Change in Clinical Practice

Hospital consolidations, decreases in the number of nurses willing to serve as preceptors, and increased student-to-faculty ratios have pro- foundly restricted availability for student clinical rotations (Hauber, Cormier, & Whyte, 2010; Kameg, Clochesy, Mitchell, & Suresky, 2010; Partin, Payne, & Slemmons, 2011; Weaver, 2011), with critical care experiences the most limited of all clinical rotations (Beddingfield, Davis, Gilmore, & Jenkins, 2011). Clinical experiences in hospitals are further constrained due to low patient census, high-acuity patient populations, and safety considerations (Founds, Zewe, & Scheuer, 2011), limiting the opportunity to perform skills, interact with physi- cians, work with multidisciplinary teams, and exercise critical think- ing skills. Barriers to clinical placement hinder new graduate nurses' potential to recognize and respond to clinical complexities (Witt, Borden, & York, 2010).Research demonstrates that new graduates are neither prepared to care for high-acuity patients nor sufficiently competent to recognize or intervene in a crisis (Fero et al., 2010; Mould, White, & Gallagher, 2011; Wotton, Davis, Button, & Kelton, 2010). In 2005, del Bueno reported that only 35 percent of new RNs meet entry-level clinical judgment expectations.High-fidelity simulation (HFS) has been used to augment clin- ical learning, providing critical thinking and psychomotor learning opportunities in low- and high-risk clinical environments and popula- tions (Garrett, MacPhee, & Jackson, 2010; Schlairet & Pollock, 2010; Sportsman, Schumacker, & Hamilton, 2011). Use of offers rele- vant, realistic clinical experiences and develops competent graduate nurses, but no consensus exists about the extent of use for clini- cal learning opportunities (Sportsman et al.). The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and national accreditation bodies do not provide guidelines on the percentage of clinical hours spent in training with HFS.MethodTheoretical FrameworkThis evidence-based review was framed by the theatre of high-fidelity simulation (THFS) education model (Roberts & Greene, 2010). THFS is grounded in Kolb's experiential learning theory, the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model of skill acquisition, and Benner's novice-to-expert the- ory. According to THFS, learners passively receive information via didactic methods and are instructed in theoretical principles, then have the opportunity to actively apply the knowledge through a simu- lated environment with the learner engaged as a participant, observer, and evaluator. Application of this model involves all physical, intel- lectual and emotional senses. Using scenarios to engage psychologi- cal, sociological, and physical components, learners can clarify issues, increase self-knowledge, and develop and refine clinical skills. THFS immersion provides deep comprehension of and competence in the role.Extensive Review of the literatureThis literature review was conducted using electronic databases CINAHL-plus, ERIC, and Cochrane Systematic Review. Full-text, English-language, peer-reviewed journal articles with quantifiable measures focusing on in undergraduate education pub- lished between January 2010 and November 2011 were identified. Boolean search phrases nursing or education and HFS and high-fi- delity were used.Most recent investigations found no significant differences in student learning outcomes when comparing the effectiveness of to the current practice of clinical rotations as a method of gaining clinical skills and critical thinking competency. (See Table.) Investigated aspects included: care of mechanically ventilated and postoperative patients (Beddingfield et al., 2011); differences in nurs- ing knowledge (Schlairet & Pollock, 2010); and interviewing and health assessment self-efficacy (Luctkar-Flude, Wilson-Keates, & Larocque, 2011). …

Bayesian modelling of a quality accreditation network

Accreditation of laboratories has been a subject of considerable interest because product quality guarantee has become one of the prime factors to be considered at this present time of highly competitive industrial activity. Laboratories in the developing countries need to establish a new strategy on accreditation to be able to demonstrate the capability to compete internationally taking account of the difficulties, barriers, confidence and international acceptance. This paper intends to investigate the factors that lead to establishing a sustainable national accreditation body (NAB) and examine employees and management’s attitudes and perceptions toward the development of a sustainable NAB in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011. The analysis has led to development of the main important factors that are directly affecting accreditation programmes in the developing countries. The Bayesian analyses have identified the main drivers of an accreditation model. The outcomes of the analyses are satisfactory because they correspond with the results of the theoretical framework.