UW-Madison’s Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Nursing and Pharmacy have become the first in the state to combine their accreditation processes for continuing education.
This move comes at a time when “most health care professionals recognize the importance of lifelong learning,” according to Barbara Anderson, chair of the UW-Madison Interprofessional Continuing Education Partnership. This partnership now handles all continuing education for the schools, and is only one of 42 in the country to receive this designation.
The certification for the partnership comes from Joint Accreditation, a combined effort of three national accrediting bodies: the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, and The American Nurses Credentialing Center.
In Wisconsin, certain types of health care professionals take part in educational classes and activities, earning a certain number of credits in order to maintain their licenses. For years, the three different health science schools at UW-Madison have had separate departments, which means individual activities would be geared toward only one specific group.
With the new combined accreditation processes, it will be much easier for the schools to write curriculum together, create and hold events, and educate different types of health care providers simultaneously.
“In the last 10 years of clinical practice we are seeing a trend toward team-based practice,” Anderson said. “As that has emerged, interprofessional practice has changed, so activities are now designed for the team, to help them understand not only their role, but how the nurse interacts with the physicians.”
This trend, she says, was the impetus for “evolving” the interprofessional programs by bringing them together. Programs will now be created with the direct input of all actors involved, including physicians, nurses and other health care providers.
“Really, we’re providing better education because everyone involved is contributing to the content — improving the way we plan activities, making sure the health care teams can function together more effectively,” Anderson said. “The better the team functions, the better patients do. This is about providing the best care as possible so patients can have the best outcomes as possible.”
The new structure improves upon a system where physicians would often take the lead on designing programs. Curricula would go around to various groups for approval and notes, but it was really only the doctors that provided direction, Anderson said.
“The difference is, [other groups] would not have contributed, they would have just commented,” Anderson said.
UW-Madison will now be providing continuing education that more accurately reflects the way health care provider teams work together, Anderson says, but it will also be saving money.
“The cost we pay nationally will be reduced, and the cost of awarding credit will be reduced,” she said, calling the new way of awarding credit “pretty streamlined.”
“Now we have one single process,” Anderson said. “The difference is, learners in a conference, the thing they notice which is different is that we have been more intentional that education reflects everyone in the room, not just physicians.”
She says it has been a challenging process to bring together the various groups, and she is looking forward to making continuing education more inclusive to the people that matter most when it comes to health decisions.
“Nationally, this is pretty new; we’re trying to find our way,” Anderson said. “It’s a pretty big accomplishment for our program.”
–By Alex Moe
WisBusiness.com
