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Published November 5, 2025
One of the three main ways BCCOHP protects the public is by ensuring that oral health professionals are able to practise competently throughout their careers. This work is carried out through our Quality Assurance Program (QAP).
BCCOHP is working to establish a modernized QAP for all oral health professionals.
The set of questions and answers below were assembled in order to address some of the questions and main points of interest that emerged through the summer 2025 consultation on the proposed framework for a modernized QAP. For more background information, please refer to the links below:
One of the main ways that BCCOHP protects the public is by ensuring that oral health professionals remain competent and accountable throughout their careers. Modernizing the QAP is a key strategic priority in BCCOHP’s 2024-2027 Strategic Plan. BCCOHP is refining our approach to quality assurance to ensure it better supports all oral health professionals in maintaining safe, ethical and patient-centered care.
Making changes to the QAP is also a necessary step in meeting legislative requirements under the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA) (Part 3 Division 8). Together, these strategic and legislative drivers establish the foundation for a single, modernized QAP that reflects BCCOHP’s regulatory purpose and public protection mandate.
When BCCOHP was established, it inherited four QAPs from the legacy colleges, each with distinct criteria, processes and requirements for different oral health professionals. While these legacy programs have remained in place, maintaining multiple, separate quality assurance approaches limits consistency, equity and transparency across the oral health team. These inconsistencies do not reflect modern public expectations for patient-centered, team-based care, or an interprofessional team-based approach to competence assurance.
The modernized QAP will replace these four legacy programs, creating a single, consistent QAP for all oral health professionals. The new program will move away from credit-based models toward a unified, reflective and standards-linked regulatory framework that emphasizes ongoing competence as a core aspect of public protection.
Modernization reflects both a legislative requirement and an evidence-informed opportunity to strengthen public protection. The HPOA directs regulatory colleges to implement QAP that promote competence across professions, while current research supports reflective, standards-based and risk-informed approaches as more effective than credit-based models.
Modernization also responds to evolving public and professional expectations; competent and ethical care is now defined through BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards, which set clear expectations for safe, ethical, accountable and team-based practice. The proposed QAP framework reinforces these expectations through consistent tools and processes that are practical across different professions and practice settings.
Through modernization, BCCOHP aims to:
Key issues with the existing programs (as identified through the research phase of this project):
Under the Health Professions and Occupations Act (div.8), BCCOHP must establish a QAP to ensure the ongoing competence of oral health professionals in the public interest. BCCOHP’s QAP fulfills this requirement by focusing on competent and ethical practice rather than credit hours or course counts.
All oral health professionals complete the same QAP because it is built around BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards, which apply across every oral health professional and practice setting. The Program allows for individual reflection and learning within a shared framework, so while the structure is consistent, each professional’s goals and learning activities reflect their unique context and scope.
Together, the program’s components promote consistent expectations for safe and competent care while allowing flexibility for personalized professional development.
All existing QAPs for oral health professionals will be discontinued to ensure a smooth transition into a single, modernized QAP. This includes discontinuing current mandatory requirements for continuing professional development hours and credits. The timing for this will be shared with oral health professionals as soon as it is available.
The modernized QAP continues to emphasize ongoing professional learning, as research shows that continuing professional development supports competence, but that quantifying learning through credits or hours does not reliably demonstrate competence.
There will be no specific number of credits or hours required. Instead, oral health professionals will complete and self-report continuing professional development activities that support the professional goals they set in Component A, based on their individual practice context.
The modernization of the QAP has been a multi-phase project guided by clear principles and evidence.
Guiding principles: Early in the project, BCCOHP developed a set of guiding principles to ensure the modernized QAP would be fair, practical and aligned with BCCOHP’s public protection mandate.
Research: The next phase focused on research, including analysis of patient experience data, best practices from other regulators and feedback from oral health professionals. This research helped identify what was working well in the existing programs and where improvements were needed.
As part of this work, BCCOHP engaged external subject matter experts and research to inform the approach toward building a modernized QAP. This research phase of the project considered:
Program design (current phase): Using this evidence, BCCOHP developed a proposed modernized QAP framework designed to better support competent, patient-centered care.
Rollout: The next phase will focus on testing, refining and rolling out the new program, with opportunities for oral health professionals to provide feedback along the way.
The research phase of this project identified key issues and solutions for how to address them in the design of the modernized Program. These are itemized in Table 1 below.
Table 1. Key issues with existing Quality Assurance Programs and recommended direction
Key issues identified | Solution |
Inconsistent quality assurance expectations across the oral health professions | Develop a single, unified QAP emphasizing team-based care |
Legacy QAPs overly focused on credit accumulation | Apply a competency-focused model emphasizing reflection and standards-linked learning |
Low relevance and regulatory defensibility of some quality assurance tools | Align tools with BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards, and ensure transparent rationale |
Registrant confusion and disengagement | Provide clear, supportive tools that are intuitive and relevant to practice context |
Missed opportunities to integrate risk-based thinking | Incorporate risk-informed quality assurance indicators and supportive mechanisms |
The overall recommendation coming out of the research phase was to pursue a multifaceted approach to quality assurance that integrates several tools. No single quality assurance mechanism was able to assess competence across all oral health professions or practice settings.
The research phase of the project considered evidence which shaped the proposed program’s underlying design, emphasizing:
During the research phase, BCCOHP engaged external subject matter experts and research to inform the approach toward building a modernized QAP. This evidence-informed foundation guided the draft framework that was shared for consultation with oral health professionals and the public, connecting research, regulatory requirements and the goal of patient-centred and competent care.
For an overview of how the evidence related to each of components A, B and C shows up, refer to the consultation materials (scroll down to the expandable accordion tab called “+Evidence-informed framework” under “supplementary materials”).
The research phase considered various quality assurance assessment methods. The proposed Program framework only incorporated quality assurance assessment and activities identified through the research as most promising (Table 1). A notable change resulting from this approach is that certain longstanding components of legacy QAPs (such as quantified continuing professional development, currency and active practice hours) are not included in the proposed Program.
Table 1: Most promising quality assurance assessments and activities
Assessment/Activity | Best use / description | Features |
Written quizzes | Follow online modules as “assessment for learning” for all oral health professionals |
|
Guided self-reflections and self-reports | Core reflection activity in Quality Assurance Program for all oral health professionals |
|
Continuing professional development annual self-reports | Link continuing professional development activities to professional goals and BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards |
|
Dashboard | Provide oral health professionals with practice insights and trends |
|
Patient surveys | Individual or team assessment tool |
|
These findings formed the foundation for the proposed QAP framework that was shared for consultation in 2025. The framework introduced three components designed to promote competence and patient safety across the oral health team:
The cycle length for the proposed QAP has not been finalized. However, registrants can expect the Program to follow a regular schedule, with Components A and B occurring annually, as per section 11.01 (2) of the proposed bylaws outlining the need for yearly requirements.
On an annual basis (as directed in the HPOA (11.01 (2)), all oral health professionals must complete both Component A and Component B of the QAP.
As each oral health professionals’ learning style varies, it is difficult to provide an exact timeframe. However, the average estimated time for completion of both components is approximately 8-10 hours (up to a day) annually. This estimate does not include continuing professional development activities that may arise from the guided self-reflections.
Estimated time breakdown for Component A: 4 hours (not including time spent on continuing professional development)
Estimated time breakdown for Component B: 4-6 hours
Estimated time breakdown for Component C: N/A
BCCOHP currently administers four separate QAPs for oral health professionals. When the modernized QAP replaces these with a single program for all oral health professionals, fees for the legacy QAP will no longer apply. Additionally, BCCOHP will achieve greater efficiency by unifying the four distinct programs into one. As always, oral health professionals would be responsible for any costs for continuing education or professional development activities they choose or are advised to complete.
Oral health professionals in British Columbia have the right to request an accommodation when participating in the QAP. The accommodation is based on a current diagnosis of a disability, impairment, condition or disorder (or any other grounds listed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the BC Human Rights Code).
BCCOHP will require supporting documents with any accommodation request. The request for accommodation should be made prior to the beginning of a QAP cycle to avoid any disruption. BCCOHP will continue to have a process in place to consider accommodation requests.
The proposed QAP has been designed with accessibility in mind. It incorporates inclusive technology practices to ensure that all oral health professionals, regardless of location or learning needs, can fully engage with the Program.
Key IT accessibility considerations include:
These features aim to make the QAP equitable, user-friendly and adaptable to diverse professional and individual needs.
The aim of Component A is to gather relevant contextual data and conduct guided self-reflections to support understanding and learning. It is also an opportunity for oral health professionals to self-reflect on how they apply BCCOHP Professional Standards and inform/guide their professional development goals.
Through guided self-reflections, oral health professionals will consider how well they understand, follow and apply BCCOHP Professional Standards in their practice. The process will also help them identify areas for growth, set personalized goals and choose continuing professional development activities that support their ongoing competency. Oral health professionals will rate themselves on each BCCOHP Professional Standard using a scale from “never” to “always”. This guided self-reflection has no right or wrong answers. In the future, the assessment may also explore how meeting (or not meeting) each standard affects patient outcomes and how the Standards connect to the Principles. BCCOHP will not have access to personal results. Each oral health professional will have access only to their own responses.
All oral health professionals can benefit from guided self-reflections. It encourages them to think about their practice, identify knowledge gaps and ensure understanding of the BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards. This process also helps with setting goals, continuing professional development activities and maintaining competent patient care. No matter the level of experience, guided self-reflection shows accountability and a commitment to ongoing learning.
Research shows that patient experience surveys offer a way to look at important skills from different perspectives. Patients may not be able to judge technical aspects of care, but they can offer unique insights on key skills that support safe care, such as teamwork, professionalism, communication and cultural safety. The survey is optional, and is meant to help oral health professionals reflect and learn in areas where patient feedback is helpful.
Individual feedback from the patient experience surveys will only be visible to the individual oral health professional to help them improve their practice. BCCOHP will only see anonymized, combined data to identify trends and opportunities. This process is separate from formal complaints, so patient feedback is used to support learning and not to punish.
Component B provides oral health professionals the opportunity to deepen their understanding of BCCOHP’s Professional and Practice Standards, along with how to meet these expectations. Interactive knowledge check activities will be included to support learning and allow oral health professionals to apply their knowledge in a practical context.
Each knowledge check activity will offer unlimited attempts and time, allowing oral health professionals to work at their own pace to reach the correct answer. Support and real-time feedback will be provided throughout the activity to aid oral health professionals with application and understanding. Progression through the activity will require the correct answer to be selected, ensuring comprehension before moving forward.
Component C of the proposed QAP is designed to provide an individualized, supportive follow-up process for oral health professionals who may benefit from additional guidance to demonstrate competence in alignment with BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards. It emphasizes proportionality, collaboration, and education, helping oral health professionals confidently apply the standards in practice to support safe, ethical, and patient-centered care.
Oral health professionals may be considered for Component C through the audit process, which identifies those who could benefit from additional support. Identification may occur when an oral health professional:
Subject to policy, privacy, and operational readiness, BCCOHP may introduce technology-enabled refinements.
Component C offers a structured way to support oral health professionals who may need additional support to demonstrate their knowledge of and alignment with BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards. This part of the proposed QAP focuses on right-touch regulation by emphasizing collaboration, education and fair, proportional responses – not punitive action – to help oral health professionals provide safe care and feel confident they are meeting BCCOHP Standards.
According to BCCOHP’s bylaws, oral health professionals must complete the QAP requirements.
BCCOHP Quality Assurance Assessors will be trained oral health professionals who act as supportive peers to facilitate learning and reflection. They help other oral health professionals demonstrate continued competence, understand BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards, set realistic professional goals and develop action plans. Quality Assurance Assessors will be selected based on criteria established by BCCOHP in alignment with the HPOA. Each Assessor will be from the same profession as the oral health professionals they support, ensuring guidance that is relevant, fair and profession-specific.
The proposed QAP focuses on ensuring competent practice and continuous alignment with BCCOHP Professional and Practice Standards. These BCCOHP Standards are specifically designed to promote equitable and competent care, which in turn supports positive patient experience and outcomes. By helping oral health professionals understand and adhere to the BCCOHP Standards, the proposed QAP strengthens the link between competent practice and patient-centered care.
Further, BCCOHP conducts research through the Voice of the Oral Health Patient in BC, asking patients and the public about their experiences with oral health care and their perceptions of how oral health care is regulated. The data from previous surveys regarding patient experiences and outcomes informed the development of the proposed modernized QAP framework through mapping to BCCOHP Professional Standards and determining the areas requiring the most improvement. Further information regarding the research program can be found here: https://oralhealthbc.ca/voice-of-the-dental-patient-in-british-columbia-research-program/.