Perceived stress among staff in Saudi Arabian dental colleges before and after an accreditation process: A cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Accreditation processes are extensively employed to guarantee the quality of higher education institutions. However, this process can potentially generate a stressful atmosphere for staff, thus impacting their ability to perform optimally under pressure. AIM: To examine the knowledge of the National Commission for Academic Assessment and Accreditation (NCAAA) and its effects on perceived stress among dental college staff before and after the program accreditation process. METHODS: The present cross-sectional questionnaire-based study included 300 employees from three dental colleges. The same employees had to fill out the questionnaire 1 mo after the NCAAA process. RESULTS: Approximately 51.33% of the included employees believed that NCAAA is essential to attract quality students to join the program before and after the program. A total of 44.67% felt that their stress was high before, and 31.33% had low stress levels before and after NCAAA. These findings were statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05). CONCLUSION: NCAAA raised the prestige of the institution and specific programmes and increased prospects to attract better students, staff, and money, according to the employees. In addition to their needed teaching, research, and other service responsibilities, this work requires a tremendous amount of faculty effort and may cause them stress.