'Emotional safety' of students among concerns flagged in review of suspended CNA program

A team of national reviewers reported on concerns about the "emotional safety" of students, high attrition rates, quality management problems, and conflicts between instructors at the College of North Atlantic's respiratory therapy program before its accreditation was pulled earlier this summer.

CNA has declined to provide any details on issues that had been identified.

But now documents obtained by CBC News shed more light on what led to the program having its accreditation withdrawn.

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The Council on Accreditation for Respiratory Therapy Education made the unprecedented decision in June.

As a result, CNA suspended first-year program admissions scheduled for September.

Students who had already completed one or two years of the three-year program were also left scrambling.

In total, nearly 40 students had their futures thrown into limbo by the decision.

CNA won't do interviews, but said by email that plans are in the works to to find a solution for students who had already started the program, and were left in the lurch.

Put on probationary status in 2016

When the decision to withdraw accreditation was announced in late June, the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists steered inquiries back to the college.

"You will need to speak with the program or CNA administration regarding the specifics as I am bound by a confidentiality clause," Carolyn McCoy, the director of accreditation and professional practice services, said in a June 28 email to CBC News.

The CNA program had been on probation since mid-2016, after a number of concerns were identified.

A team of reviewers returned to the college this June, shortly before the decision was made to pull accreditation.

CBC News has obtained a copy of a 40-page-plus report that was completed after that follow-up visit.

According to the report, in 2016 "the team identified long-standing concerns that have not been resolved (i.e. student attrition, quality management problems, the relationship between didactic and clinical faculty.)"

That apparent conflict between clinical and didactic, or teaching, faculty is raised a number of times throughout the document.

The council indicated many of the factors that led to the split continued to persist as of June — something that presented "significant risk to the program's ability to conform with this accreditation requirement."

There were also a number of comments critical of the design of the program.

"[The council] is concerned that employers feel that they must take measures to re-teach background information required for entry-to-practice and understands that this may be related to the current program design," the report noted.

'High program attrition'

And then there are problems meeting the requirement that "student safety and exposure to safe working practices is ensured at all clinical training sites."

That section of the report referenced "unprofessional behaviour" by an unnamed person.

"This has created a learning environment that is perceived as intimidating and not supportive of learning and the progressive development of competency," the report noted.

The emotional safety of students continues to concern the program review team.- June 2017 report on CNA's respiratory therapy program

"Evidence indicates that this also contributes to the high program attrition rate."

Senior college administrators met in August 2016 to discuss the issue, according to the report.

But problems persisted.

"The emotional safety of students continues to concern the program review team," the report noted.

"Many current and former students do not feel that the program is an emotionally safe program and indicated that they would not recommend this program to others as a result."

CNA had touted 100 per cent exam success rate

CNA officials declined to answer specific questions from CBC News about the alleged "unprofessional behaviour" and concerns expressed about the "emotional safety of students."

In an email, CNA would only confirm that the personnel involved with the program are no longer employed by the college.

They also did not reply to inquiries seeking to quantify the attrition rate referenced in the report.

In late June, when CNA announced that the program's accreditation had been withdrawn, officials stressed that 28 of the college's respiratory therapy graduates wrote the national exam over the past five years, with a 100 per cent success rate.

That's an average of fewer than six students per year.

The college did not respond to questions about how many students began the program but dropped out over that same time frame.

Plan in works for completion of studies

CNA says there is a plan in the works to help students who were still in the program when its accredition was withdrawn.

The college says it is working with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology towards a solution that could allow students who have already done one or two years of the three-year program to complete their studies in St. John's.

As for new students, CNA indicated that the program has been suspended for first-year intake "for the foreseeable future."