Accreditation

Accreditation for health educational programs is an opportunity for continuous quality improvement. Graduating from an accredited educational program demonstrates that graduates have attained a level of entry-to-practice competencies required for health care professionals.

It is a chance for all parties involved in the formation of our future physicians, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, physical, occupational and respiratory therapists to improve function, structure and performance.

During a site visit, an accreditation team will conduct interviews with faculty, staff and students. This usually takes two to three days.

Following the visit, accreditors will validate the information presented in the self-study reports and will generate a series of findings and recommendations to improve the quality of educational programs.

Proper planning is a key success for program undergoing an accreditation. Our team members have several years of experience in assisting programs with their accreditation planning and providing admin supports throughout the accreditation process. Accreditation is a continuous quality improvement exercise; therefore, programs are recommended to start planning between 18-24 months prior to the site visit. Book a meeting with our team to start planning for your accreditation.

At our meeting we will review tools and services to support the accreditation process. These include:

Proposed timeline – this includes key milestones such as data collection phase, drafting of reports and recommended scheduling. For example, meetings with senior university leadership must be booked as early as possible. Rooms for in-person accreditation site visits must also be booked early.

Project tracker – a tool designed to identify evidence required to meet standards or actions required to do so.

Checklist – a list of activities for accreditation, including who will be accountable for each task.

Data collection – programs need stakeholder input and other evaluation data early in preparing for accreditation. The IAU is ready to create and distribute stakeholder surveys and prepare preliminary results (e.g., student, alumni, employer surveys). We can also offer training on LimeSurvey.

Beside the site visit, the largest part of the accreditation process is the self-assessment report writing.

As the content experts, programs are required to write the self-assessment report. The IAU is available for providing gap analysis, proofreading, formatting and converting the report into an easy-to-navigate and professional-looking document.

The IAU can also help submit the report on behalf of your program.We canprovide the following support to get you started:

• A written template based on the previous self-assessment (Primer)
• Document management in Teams or SharePoint (we can provide training on how to use SharePoint, if needed)
• Tracking of required evidence and collating documents

You will be required to validate the whole draft accreditation document package (self-assessment report and appendices) before providing it to us and before submission.

We will have regular meetings throughout to monitor the progress of the self-assessment to ensure a successful submission by the deadline. When the package is complete, we can:

• Submit the self-assessment along with a signed cover letter by the Dean, RFHS to the accreditation body on your behalf

We can also provide support following the submission of your self-assessment, including updates upon request from the accreditors.

Programs should engage with thefaculty and staff who will be meeting with the accreditors prior to the site visit.

The main goals of the preparatory workshops is to create awareness about the program’s accreditation process and build a sense of community by learning together about the program’s successful initiatives and opportunities for improvement.

The accreditation preparatory workshops provide a great opportunity for recognition of faculty, students and clinical teachers’ achievements.

Following the self-assessment report submission, program should engage with their faculty and staff who will be meeting with the accreditors prior to the site visit.

The main purpose of the preparatory workshop is to create awareness about program’s accreditation, build a sense of community and to learn about program’s successful initiatives as well as recognition of faculty, students and clinical teachers’ achievements.

The preparatory workshop can be done in various ways:

• Accreditation boot camps. These take place in a hybrid format: plenary and world café (virtual or face-to-face)
• Mock interviews/small group sessions facilitated by the IAU team. Topics are related to program accreditation and are consistent with the self-assessment report
• Newsletters/fact sheets
• Short video presentations tailored to different group of stakeholders

We also assist programs with session logistics.

The IAU is ready to host your site visit virtually or face-to-face.

Preparing a site visit for health educational programs requires significant amount of coordination between the program, its faculty, staff, clinical instructors, preceptors and students. 

Our unit supports programs with their site visit logistics. This includes:

• preparing agendas
• sending calendar invites
• catering orders
• meeting room bookings
• hotel reservations
• arranging surveyors’ transportation to and from school
• creating signage
• hosting in-person and virtual site visits

The IAU is ready to design and develop Quality Improvement projects and action plans in response to accreditation findings.

After the site visit, our unit supports in responding to recommendations. We assist with drafting of status reports and in the implementation of Accreditation Monitoring Plans.

• Status (Progress) Report – IAU provides templates, reviews and finalizes status reports before submission to the accrediting body. We also prepare cover letters signed by the dean of Rady Faculty, or the dean of the college to accompany the status report.
  
• Accreditation Monitoring Plan (AMP) – IAU will co-develop a plan to collect and evaluate data to satisfy accreditation requirements for status reports such as accreditation monitoring plan or improvement projects. Having an annual accreditation monitoring plan or improvement projects plan will alleviate the burden of accreditation works for the next cycle.

As part of our mandate, we also foster and keep the institutional memory for accreditation content and processes in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. We ask programs to send us the final report and decision letters from the accrediting body as we collect and maintain these documents to preserve institutional memory. With leaderships and staffs’ turnovers, it is a good way to maintain the accreditation-related information within the Rady Faculty office.

If you are a graduate of a Rady Faculty non-professional program and require an accreditation letter post-graduation, contact rahel.birhan@umanitoba.