Submission ID 77865
| Code | OF-3-1 |
|---|---|
| At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: | |
| Category | Medical Education |
| Type | Oral |
| Will the presenter be a: | Student |
| Title | Variation in the Self-Evaluation Guidance for Medical School Accreditation |
| Background/Purpose | In this era of globalized medical education, ensuring high-quality medical education internationally becomes critically important. The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) has developed a Recognition Programme to standardize practices across medical school accrediting agencies. WFME requires that agencies provide medical schools with self-evaluation guidance but does not specify which metrics are required to demonstrate compliance with accreditation standards. The goal of this study was to assess variation in the self-evaluation guidance given by WFME-recognized medical school accreditation agencies. |
| Methods | In the summer of 2022, we reviewed agency websites and contacted agencies to acquire medical school self-evaluation guidance, then examined the guidance given for comparable standards. |
| Results | We obtained self-evaluation documents from 17 of 28 WFME-recognized agencies. Self-evaluation guidance ranged from agencies requesting a 25-page maximum narrative summary of compliance with standards to requiring a completed 207-page template with standard-specific qualitative and quantitative data. We identified four categories of approaches to self-evaluation guidance along a spectrum of more specific/prescriptive to less: data-collection instrument (template for data collection), evaluation rubric (self-rating compliance with standards), standard-specific free response prompts, and non-standard specific guidance. |
| Discussion | The WFME Recognition Programme seeks to standardize accreditation practices, but the guidance that WFME-recognized agencies give to medical schools varies considerably in format and specificity even for similar standards. Many agencies also do not make their guidance available, making it impossible for the public and other stakeholders to understand how agencies are serving their quality assurance purposes. Future research should investigate how various forms of guidance support high quality medical education. |
| Keyword 1 | Medical school accreditation |
| Keyword 2 | Quality assurance |
| Keyword 3 | International medical education |
| Abstract content most relevant to: (check all that apply) | Undergraduate Medical Education |
| Abstract Track - First Choice | Curriculum |
| Curriculum | Quality improvement |
| Authors | Yuxing Ma Sean Tackett Yuxing Ma |
