The first aim of my research was to first identify Quality Assurance activities in nursing in universities and assess
their appropriateness in meeting the needs of nursing education. The second aim was to examine the
perceptions of nurse academics to the applicability of TQM to nursing education. To meet these aims the
researcher tailored the investigation to specifically examine organisational culture and human resource
management in nursing in universities. Both aspects are integral components of TQM and have been
categorised as the ‘soft’ aspects of TQM by Dale, Cooper and Wilkinson (1997), and Wilkinson et al. (1998).