The Quality Assurance program of the College includes a Self-Assessment, a Professional Development Plan, and evaluation by the QA Committee of the member’s Self-Assessment and Professional Development Plan.
The QA program requires that each member of the College complete the Self- Assessment each and every year.
Members must maintain his or her own self-assessment based on the annual Self-Assessment forms and any related QA records for 3 years. Members are not required to submit them to the College unless they have been randomly selected for an audit.
The Self-Assessment has been designed to assist members in identifying what areas related to the Standards of Practice they would like to learn more about and to identify their continuing education or professional development learning activities for the upcoming year.
The Self-Assessment focuses on the members practice and what areas of responsibility are included in his or her practice as well as addressing any expected changes in his or her practice environment. It also addresses any advances in technology and any interprofessional collaboration that is anticipated in the members practice.
The Self- Assessment forms is based on the Standards of Practice of the profession and describes the knowledge, skills and judgement relevant to the member’s practice. It will assist members in identifying professional development activities (i.e. what they would like to learn more about and learning activities they would like to undertake) to promote continuing competency and continuing quality improvement in their practice and how these selected areas will help the member in his or her current and/or anticipated practice.
The Professional Development Plan is a tool that has been designed for members to document his or her professional development activities, it is located at the end of the Self-Assessment Forms. The Professional Development Plan provides a section for the member to document his or her top priority areas that he or she is interested in learning more about, a description of the activities, the date the activity is completed, the length of the activity in hours and the type of activities undertaken. When the learning activity is completed the member will document how the learning activity helped the member in his or her practice. This is a key component of the QA program as it provides evidence of the members continuing competency and continuing quality improvement.
Each year the QA Committee will require a percentage of members to submit his or her Self-Assessment forms and his or her Professional Development Plan and related QA records or portions of them to the Quality Assurance Committee for review.
The College randomly selects members by using a computer algorithm that employs stratified random sampling. Every active and inactive member can be selected for their Self-Assessment Forms. In 2015, 150 members were randomly selected, this represents 5% of the membership.
The members who are required to submit their QA records will be advised in writing at least three months prior to the date that the QA records must be received by the College. For example, members could be advised in April 2013 that they are required to submit their Self-Assessment forms and Professional Development Plan and related QA records or portions of them to the Quality Assurance Committee for evaluation by the QA Committee no later than January 20, 2014. This allows members time to discuss any questions that they may have regarding the QA program with the College staff and prepare adequately for the evaluation of their QA records.
