The need to ensure consistently high standards in the aged care sector is vital. The recent impacts of COVID-19 have challenged many to really ensure continuing high-quality regimes. Dan Forsman, Chair of New Zealand Organisation for Quality (NZOQ), commented that “Quality is always essential. There are two important aspects of quality, one is the ongoing robust internal assessment and good self-audit and secondly is the preparation for involvement in external audit and evaluation”.
Good internal audit systems involve all staff, not just the “Quality Manager”.
“The spread of the quality and excellence ethos throughout all levels of the facility ensures that all are well prepared to ensure positive compliance”, said Forsman.
NZOQ is a not-for-profit national professional association for quality practice and practitioners and is a registered Incorporated Society.
NZOQ has for many years also provided relevantly, focused industry-based training aimed at providing staff with realistic skills and competencies to aid employers and organisations. NZOQ has completed quality training with over half a dozen aged care/health organisations over the past few years.
The best starting point for quality training would be the NZOQ two-day internal auditor training (IA) programme, click here for more info. This provides all staff with the ability to self-audit and participate in an organisation’s internal audit processes. Self-audit is an essential part of any internal evaluation programme and also a precursor to formal external audit and review.
The NZOQ IA programme is offered as a public course throughout New Zealand. It can also be delivered in-house to your organisation as a tailored programme.
“This popular option allows our professional trainer to deliver on-site so minimising staff travel, inconvenience, downtime and accommodation expenses," said Forsman.
IA is approved for the NZTE training subsidies. Course graduates can then progress onto a range of further training opportunities including a distance learning diploma programme.
Please contact Tess Stewart at NZOQ for more details. quality@nzoq.org.nz
