Quality Assurance in Ontario Schools of Nursing

Abstract

This dissertation examines the quality assurance (QA) review processes in Ontario's Schools of Nursing (SoN), which undergo three distinct reviews: mandatory provincial and regulatory approvals and voluntary accreditation. Each review is intended to ensure program quality, but the overlapping requirements impose significant burdens on administrators, faculty and staff (known throughout as the interest holders). My study identifies redundancies, illustrates the human impact of the current system, and suggests improvements that could reduce burdens for SoN interest holders participating in the reviews. Through an explanatory, sequential two-part multimethod study, including document reviews, a survey, and interviews, my research highlights the benefits, barriers, and challenges of the current QA review requirements for interest holders in Ontario SoN.

The findings reveal that, while QA reviews ensure that all SoN are held to consistent standards in their administration and programming, they create significant challenges for interest holders due to their repetitive nature, excessive workload, and the perception that they are not relevant to the contextual realities of Nursing education in Ontario. Interest holders recognize the theoretical benefits of the system, but they expressed frustration at how they experience it. My findings suggest that streamlining QA processes by identifying commonalities across reviews, adopting change management and resistance to change techniques, and developing integrated strategies for QA activities in Ontario's SoN is required for the sustainability of this work.

My research contributes to the broader scholarship on QA in higher education (HE) and offers practical recommendations for the QA bodies and Ontario SoN. It emphasizes the need for improved collaboration between QA bodies and SoN to reduce inefficiencies, ensuring that QA remains sustainable in an era of resource constraints. Finally, it explores issues of resistance to change as a model for how interest holders resist QA activities and how to identify and counter the associated behaviours among them.