Editorial - Journal of Patuakhali Medical College Vol 1 No 1 January 2022

Md. Zahirul Islam¹, Md. Faizul Bashar²

 The quality assurance is one of the fundamental things that any educational system has to maintain. Medical education is not any exception. Medical education system needs extensive training and supervision in order to build the future doctors who will serve health care delivery in Bangladesh. So for the improvement of the standard of the health care system in Bangladesh we have to maintain the standard quality assurance in assessment methods as well as in teaching-learning at medical colleges.

 Quality assurance is implied as an accountability to the public and meeting the requirements of the external standards and an essential for enhancing and maintaining the quality of teaching and learning at an institution.¹ Quality assurance includes both quality management and quality control. Where quality control ensures that a manufactured product or the performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria. Quality assurance includes all the policies, standards, systems and processes that are in place to maintain and improve the quality of medical education and training.¹

Some frameworks are required to review and evaluate the quality assurance of medical education. For quality assurance in medical education system of Bangladesh organizational framework as well as operational framework has important roles in individual context. The councils and committees are the organizational framework while some processes and procedures are the operational framework.²   

Organizations e.g. Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME), Center foe Medical Education (CME) at national level can monitor the overall quality assurance. At the same time institutional quality assurance body can work at institutional level for the implementation of national agenda. Institutional quality assurance body may be formed with academic council, academic co-ordination committee, phase co-ordination committee, subject coordinators and student representatives.

 Operational framework are the procedures by which MBBS course standards are monitored. In this framework course appraisal, faculty development and review, external review is necessary. 

Main stakeholders of the MBBS course are the students. So, students should be the principle focus during the quality assurance process. During the course appraisal phase of the operational framework satisfaction level of the students should be analyzed according to the phase.

 The teaching learning of MBBS course is facilitated by the faculty. So faculty development and review is another important part of quality assurance in medical colleges. Head of the departments should arrange the development and review activities within the department and phase co-ordination committee should do this among the phases. Academic council of the medical college should monitor the overall activities of faculty development and review.

During the quality assurance process one medical college should be reviewed by peer medical colleges. This external review system will improve some dark corners that is not seen by the college stakeholders. It can easily be done by the external examiners during each examination session.  

 For quality assurance in medical colleges these operational frameworks should be practiced under meticulous supervision in organizational framework. Best practices of the quality assurance will change our current medical education system towards more positive direction.

REFERENCES

1. Joshi MA. Quality assurance in medical education. Indian J Pharmacol. 2012 May-Jun; 44(3): 285–287.

2. Centre for Medical Education (CME) and Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) (2012) National guidelines and tools for Quality Assurance scheme for medical colleges in Bangladesh

how to cite this article

Islam MZ, Bashar MF. Quality Assurance of Medical Education in Bangladesh. Journal of Patuakhali Medical College. 2022 January;1(1):1-2.

Issue:

JPkMC V1N1 (January 2022)

Section

Editorial