Accreditation of nursing education in Iran: Documenting the process

Background: In recent year, the accreditation process as the most important assurance and improvement of the quality of higher education, especially in medical sciences, has been set forthed. The need for accreditation of nursing faculties as the same of medical sciences has been acutely felt. Yet there are not compiled standards at the same time, to describe present and desirable quality via accreditation process. So naturally accreditation without standards will not be possible. Therefore, the employment of international standards does not seem to be realistic. Accordingly, the researchers decided to compile applicable accreditation standards to nursing education in Iran, using available international standards as well as suggestions made by nursing education experts in Iran. Methods: This research is a Triangulation study carried out in three main steps. In the first step, sufficient documents on international standards for validation of nursing education were gathered from the Internet and the standards were divided in ten different categories. Using these ten categories of global standards, in the second step of study, a questionnaire with open answers based on Delphi techniques was prepared. In the third step, 50 nursing educational experts of the country were selected and their suggestions regarding desirability and applicability of these standards to the educational, executive and sociocultural situations in Iran were investigated through a descriptive survey method. To analyze the quantitative data gathered in the third step, descriptive statistical methodology of frequency distribution was used. Results: 260 standards in 10 domains were drafted for accreditation of B.S nursing education in Iran (in input, output and process areas). Conclusion: The most of the standards had either appropriate or fairly appropriate level except in some cases without 100% votes of agreement mostly on issues lack of appropriateness of these standards can be central educational system and the prevailing atmosphere in national nursing education system in Iran. So, necessary changes in final standards have been made based on subjects’ viewpoints. Key words: Accreditation process, nursing education, accreditation standards