Assessing Microcredential Impact in Healthcare Education: A Hospital Case Study

Thesis Abstract

This study investigates how microcredentials in healthcare education influence professional competence, practice readiness, and patient outcomes within a hospital setting, addressing the gap in empirical evidence on the value proposition of short-form credentials for continual professional development. The problem stems from fragmented uptake of microcredentials, inconsistent recognition by credentialing bodies, and limited understanding of their impact on clinical performance and organizational learning within hospitals. The aim is to evaluate the impact of hospital-embedded microcredentials on (i) clinical competence and decision-making, (ii) interprofessional collaboration, and (iii) patient safety and service quality, with objectives to quantify adoption rates, measure changes in competency scores, explore perceptions of stakeholders, and identify conditions that maximize learning transfer and institutional value. The study is guided by the Diffusion of Innovations theory and the Expanded Capability Approach to elucidate how microcredentials diffuse through professional communities and how they translate into enhanced capabilities for patient care. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design is employed. The population comprises clinical and allied health staff across two tertiary hospitals within a metropolitan health system. A stratified random sample of 240 staff members who completed at least one hospital-issued microcredential in the previous 18 months will be surveyed, complemented by purposive sampling of 30 program coordinators and 15 department heads for qualitative insight. Data collection instruments include a validated Clinical Competence Scale adapted for microcredential contexts, the Interprofessional Collaboration Measure, and a Patient Care Quality Index drawn from hospital administrative data. Qualitative data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, with interviewees selected to represent diverse professions and levels of credential participation. Validity and reliability will be ensured through pilot testing, triangulation, and expert review. Quantitative data will be analyzed via descriptive statistics, multiple regression to assess the association between microcredential participation and competence and quality outcomes, and ANOVA to examine differences by profession and credential type. Mediation analysis will test whether improvements in interprofessional collaboration mediate the relationship between microcredentials and patient care quality. Qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic analysis aligned with Braun and Clarke, with coding conducted independently by two researchers to establish credibility. Key expected findings include higher post-credential competence scores among participants, statistically significant improvements in interprofessional collaboration, and measurable enhancements in patient safety indicators (e.g., reduced adverse events) and timely care metrics for credential-holders compared with non-holders. The study anticipates that microcredentials featuring practice-based simulations, reflective portfolios, and interprofessional components yield stronger learning transfer and higher perceived relevance than knowledge-based credentials. It is also expected that organizational factors—such as alignment with formal credentialing processes, availability of protected time for learning, and robust entry criteria—will significantly moderate the impact on outcomes. The study will contribute to knowledge by providing granular evidence on the causal pathways linking microcredential participation to clinical performance, interprofessional practice, and patient outcomes within hospital settings; by clarifying how design features of microcredentials influence applicability and transfer; and by offering a theoretically grounded framework for evaluating microcredential programs in healthcare. Policy and practice implications include recommendations for hospital leadership on scaling effective microcredentialing, designing interprofessional and simulation-based formats, integrating microcredentials into competency frameworks, and aligning them with quality and safety targets. The conclusion will emphasize the conditions under which microcredentials generate measurable improvements in care delivery, while recommendations will address program design, governance, and further research avenues, such as longitudinal studies to assess long-term impact and generalizability across health systems.