COMPILING A PLACEMENT AUDIT TOOL - A CASE-STUDY OF ONE COLLEGES USE OF THE QUALCUBE MODEL IN DEVELOPING AN AUDIT TOOL FOR STUDENT PLACEMENTAREAS

Nursing students, as users of college services, can rightly expect sat isfaction and even continuous improvement in their clinical experience , which is one of the cornerstones of nurse education, The North Yorks hire College of Health Studies has developed and used a multidisciplin ary placement audit tool based on QualCube, a framework for standard s etting, auditing and improving quality developed by Nicklin and Lanksh ear (in Nicklin & Kenworthy 1995 p 18). In order to facilitate a thoro ugh audit of placement areas, a working group devised the tool based o n the relevant areas of intersection of the three planes of the cube a nd then set written standards and specified performance criteria, This article describes the application of the QualCube framework, the desi gn and description of the tool and feedback on its usage, The exciting and useful difference in the tool is its final page, the action plan, which is designed to realistically encourage continuous improvement i n each placement area.