Exploring the perceptions of the heads of private nursing education institutions on the accreditation process of the Nursing Education and Training Quality Assurance Body (ETQA) in the eThekwini District of KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

Nursing throughout the world is striving for international competitiveness and accountability for effectiveness and trust to the students, patients and the community they serve, thus making the issue of accreditation increasingly important. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of the heads of private nursing education institutions on accreditation process by nursing education and training quality assurance body at eThekwini district. Reviewed literature has revealed that the South African Government has facilitated and encouraged the establishment of quality assurance through the South African Qualifications Authority Act, the National Qualifications Framework Act (NQF) and the Nursing Act. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews with each of the heads of the seven selected private nursing education institutions. Qualitative content analysis using an editing style was performed in this study. Findings of this study revealed that nursing education institutions lack their own internal quality assessment processes as quality of teaching and learning depends on the interaction between the teacher and the students, the collective integrity as well as the professionals in the nursing education institution. Recommendations focused on periodic internal self-assessment as a vehicle to promote the culture of institutional internal self-assessment practices, as quality is seen as logical approach for conveying the importance of excellence to individuals who are nursing care recipients. Reports from the internal review should be provided by the institution to the external evaluation team prior to the external evaluators visit.