Fiona Bradley,
Senior Professional Officer
NIPEC has a statutory responsibility to promote ‘High Standards of Professional Development among Nurses and Midwives’.
One of the organisation’s corporate objectives is to:
‘Contribute to the quality assurance of non NMC approved education, learning and development programmes for nurses and midwives.
The Department of Health (DoH) commissions a wide range of education activities from both education and service providers. These include study days; standalone modules; courses leading to an academic award; and a range of development activities.
The DoH and the HSC Trusts require assurances that these commissioned education activities meet the requirements to support and facilitate the delivery of safe, effective person-centred care, while optimising opportunities for workforce development and transformation.
The NIPEC Quality Assurance (QA) Framework (2023) outlines the requirements that education provider organisations need to demonstrate in order to provide assurances that their education programmes are of a satisfactory standard.
The Framework is aligned to the five themes within the NMC Standards Framework for Nursing and Midwifery Education[1]. Within each of these themes are monitoring criteria which set out the evidence that education providers must demonstrate to ensure their education programmes meet the required standards.
A co-production approach is employed to the Quality Assurance monitoring process where people who use our health service and carers are invited to participate in the monitoring and evaluation of the education programmes.
The QA Framework has also proven to be a beneficial tool for educators in terms of planning and developing their education programmes as it provides guidance and structure in ensuring the correct measures are taken to achieving a high-quality education programme.
View information relating to the ‘Quality Assurance Framework for Monitoring Nursing and Midwifery Education, Learning and Development Programmes Commissioned by the Department of Health’ (2023).
[1] Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018) Part 1: Standards framework for nursing and midwifery education. London: NMC.