QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE TRAINING OF NURSES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE NATIONAL ACCREDITATION PROCESS

Abstract

A strengths and weaknesses analysis of fourteen Schools for Nurses certified until 2007 by the Chilean “Comisión Nacional de Acreditación de Pregrado (CNAP)” is presented. The results of the certification process or “certification decision” by the CNAP is a public document that fully reports to the community the main strengths and weaknesses detected in the academic unit that supports the decision made. Its purpose is to contribute with knowledge to the search for strategies that allow to assure an improvement in the quality of the undergraduate programs of the Chilean nurse degrees. One of the findings among the main strengths of the profile at the moment of graduation and the studies process are: coherence between mission, profile at graduation and goals, curricular update, pedagogical strategies and support resources for teaching. Among the main weaknesses are: curricular flexibility, disciplinary perspective, formative processes, graduates follow-up and Research development. In the analysis of operation and self-regulation capacity of the certified careers, the strengths highlighted are the organizational structure, quality of the teachers, competent directors, quality of the students and response capability in the self-evaluation processes, and among the main weaknesses you find administrative structure,
teacher workload, training programs, book availability and strategic plan.