Standards and standardisation

This chapter explores the way in which standards have impacted on thepractice-based learning experiences of health students. Using a critical discourse analysis of the health service standards and processes of standardisation, the limitations of health service standards on health student education are illustrated. A description of how the standards have become self-evident claims of best practice, and the expectations of compliance by health professionals and health students alike is provided. The authors argue that the biomedical paradigm and ideology of economicrationalism has influenced what constitutes evidence-based 'best' practicestandards, with a subsequent subordination of humanist discourses. The authors conclude by encouraging the development of innovative pedagogy for practice-based learning that promotes critical thinking about the structures that support practice as well as the practice itself.