Appraisal of Egyptian Nursing Faculties in Light of Egyptian Accreditation Standards: Perception of Students, Staff Members and Employees

Accreditation has gained worldwide attention as an effective quality evaluation and management tool. Accreditation of educational institutions in Egypt is granted by "The National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education NAQAAE ".  To be accredited, the educational institution has to prove that it has the institutional capacity and the educational effectiveness in accordance with the minimum "National Academic Reference Standards", or any other international standards approved by "The National Authority for Quality Assurance and accreditation of education" and that it has advanced systems that assures continuous quality improvement and enhancement. This study aimed to identify perceptions of students, staff members and employees regarding the implementation of the Egyptian accreditation standards in accredited and non accredited nursing faculties. Design a descriptive comparative design was utilized. The sample included 2195 students, 322 post graduate students, 566 staff members, 41 academic leaders and 341employees. This study was conducted at 5 Egyptian nursing faculties two are accredited (Cairo& Alexandria) and three are not yet accredited (Zagzig, Ismailia &Banha).  Data were collected over a period of 10 months started in November 2012 till the end of August 2013. Methods: the researcher used 5 questionnaires as data collection methods; one for undergraduate students, one for graduate students, one for faculty staff, one for academic leaders and one for employees.  Each questionnaire consisted of two main parts; the first part assesses the socio demographic data of the respondents, the second part deals with the 16 domains of accreditation according to NAQAAE classification; 8 domains for institutional capacity and 8 domains for educational effectiveness. Results: of the study revealed that there were statistically significant differences between accredited and non accredited nursing faculties regarding total scores of institutional capacity. However there were no statistical differences between nursing faculties regarding total educational effectiveness. On the other hand, there were highly statistically significant relationship between total institutional capacity and total educational effectiveness and their total sub scales for accredited nursing faculty's staff members. There was highly statistically significant relationship between total institutional capacity and total educational effectiveness for non accredited faculties’ academic leaders. Finally there was statistically significant relationship between total institutional capacity and total educational effectiveness scores for accredited nursing faculty's employees. Conclusion: accredited nursing faculties showed more effective quality education than non accredited nursing faculties. Recommendation: the most important recommendation is to maintain strengths of the accredited nursing faculties and to encourage the non-accredited to fulfill requirements and seek accreditation. Keywords: Accreditation    Quality Assurance

Appraisal of Egyptian Nursing Faculties in Light of Egyptian Accreditation Standards: Perception of Students, Staff Members and Employees

Accreditation has gained worldwide attention as an effective quality evaluation and management tool. Accreditation of educational institutions in Egypt is granted by "The National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education NAQAAE ".  To be accredited, the educational institution has to prove that it has the institutional capacity and the educational effectiveness in accordance with the minimum "National Academic Reference Standards", or any other international standards approved by "The National Authority for Quality Assurance and accreditation of education" and that it has advanced systems that assures continuous quality improvement and enhancement. This study aimed to identify perceptions of students, staff members and employees regarding the implementation of the Egyptian accreditation standards in accredited and non accredited nursing faculties. Design a descriptive comparative design was utilized. The sample included 2195 students, 322 post graduate students, 566 staff members, 41 academic leaders and 341employees. This study was conducted at 5 Egyptian nursing faculties two are accredited (Cairo& Alexandria) and three are not yet accredited (Zagzig, Ismailia & Banha).  Data were collected over a period of 10 months started in November 2012 till the end of August 2013. Methods: the researcher used 5 questionnaires as data collection methods; one for undergraduate students, one for graduate students, one for faculty staff, one for academic leaders and one for employees.  Each questionnaire consisted of two main parts; the first part assesses the socio demographic data of the respondents, the second part deals with the 16 domains of accreditation according to NAQAAE classification; 8 domains for institutional capacity and 8 domains for educational effectiveness. Results: of the study revealed that there were statistically significant differences between accredited and non accredited nursing faculties regarding total scores of institutional capacity. However there were no statistical differences between nursing faculties regarding total educational effectiveness. On the other hand, there were highly statistically significant relationship between total institutional capacity and total educational effectiveness and their total sub scales for accredited nursing faculty's staff members. There was highly statistically significant relationship between total institutional capacity and total educational effectiveness for non accredited faculties’ academic leaders. Finally there was statistically significant relationship between total institutional capacity and total educational effectiveness scores for accredited nursing faculty's employees. Conclusion: accredited nursing faculties showed more effective quality education than non accredited nursing faculties. Recommendation: the most important recommendation is to maintain strengths of the accredited nursing faculties and to encourage the non-accredited to fulfill requirements and seek accreditation. Keywords: Accreditation Egyptian Nursing, Accreditation Standards, Perception of Students, Staff Members and Employee

Understanding Nurse, Family, & Interpreter Involvement in Family-Centered Rounds at Children’s National Medical Center

Family-Centered Rounds (FCR) is a model that emphasizes bedside rounding with intentional inclusion of the patient and family in partnership with physicians, nurses, and staff. Challenges to conducting successful FCR include language barriers and a lack of a reliable notification system for all parties. These barriers can be overcome through the development of a FCR mobile application to improve communication and coordination between the stakeholders involved in a child’s care. This study analyzed data on nurse, interpreter, and family inclusion in FCR. Objective observations of daily FCR - measures of medical team communication with nurses, stakeholder presence, and licensed interpreter use for limited-English proficiency (LEP) families - were recorded using REDCap. REDCap was also used to survey physicians and nurses for a subjective measure of team communication and nurse presence at FCR. Physicians self-reported contacting nurses 80% of the time for FCR. However, objective measures showed that they contacted nurses only 59% of the time. When contacted before rounds started, more nurses were present for the entire duration of FCR. Additionally, their presence any time during FCR increased by 31% compared to nurses who were contacted at/after the start of rounds. This indicates the importance of early notification, a task which can be better facilitated by a mobile app. The most common barrier reported by physicians is nurses not answering their phones. The leading reason nurses self-report for missing FCR is patient care duties, which could explain their inability to answer their phones at all times. The mobile app will resolve this dilemma by providing a text notification option, a method which more than 55% of nurses and doctors are willing to use. Language is another barrier to conducting successful FCR. Although LEP families were present more often than English proficient (EP) families, they were offered FCR less frequently. Also, a licensed interpreter was only offered 58% of the time. This study demonstrates a need to better facilitate FCR among doctors, nurses, families and interpreters at Children’s National. The data shows low nurse attendance, disparities in FCR being offered to LEP vs EP families, and a lack of licensed interpreter use. We propose that technology such as a mobile app notification system can facilitate better communication and coordination between all parties, ultimately improving patient care