UAMS Office of Continuing Education Awarded Joint Accreditation

By ChaseYavondaC

Joint Accreditation in Interprofessional Continuing Education was issued by three global leaders in the field of accreditation — the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, and the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

The designation allows the UAMS Office of Continuing Education to provide joint continuing education through July 2021.

Only 54 institutions across the nation have achieved this accreditation status and only a few of those are academic health centers. The accreditation offers three accreditations and promotes interprofessional continuing education activities.

Through it, one activity can be organized with all three entities from medicine, nursing and pharmacy receiving credit for attending the same seminar. Joint Accreditation also makes it easier for both the administrative office and the organizations seeking credits.

With the Joint Accreditation, the educational activities planned by and for the health care team are specifically targeted to enhance interprofessional collaborative practice in health care. Representatives from nursing, medicine and pharmacy are involved in the activities from serving on the planning committee, to developing the education plan. In cases where a particular continuing education activity isn’t appropriate for the entire team, separate continuing education activities can be accredited instead.

The goal of bringing together teams is to improve communication and collaboration within the medical field, which in turn can help lessen medical errors and improve patient care. Poor communication in the health care field is often cited as a root cause of medical errors.

Lea Mabry, M.Ed., director of the Office of Continuing Education in the Division of Academic Affairs, said this achievement would not have been possible without the vision of Jeanne Heard, M.D., the former provost, and the support of the current provost, Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., who also is serving as interim chancellor.

“The road to Joint Accreditation was the result of an interprofessional effort by UAMS employees from the colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy and Medicine working together to ensure continuing interprofessional education is available for the health care teams at UAMS and beyond,” Mabry said.

The application process began in May 2016 but stretches back to 2014 when Heard started a process to centralize continuing education activities. During that time, the College of Medicine was nationally accredited with commendation to award physician credits, the College of Pharmacy was nationally accredited to award pharmacy credits, and various departments through the campus were providing state nursing credits with one being a provider of national nursing credits.

A committee was formed to begin the process of qualifying for the newly created Joint Accreditation.

To qualify, at least 25 percent of the UAMS-accredited continuing education activities had to be planned by and for the health care team during an 18-month period.

Once that was met, the Office of Continuing Education went through a rigorous application and interview process to determine UAMS was adhering to the highest standards for continuing education.

“I am grateful for the diligent work of all the UAMS continuing education providers who collaborated to make this possible, and especially grateful to Lea Mabry for her leadership in the formation of the UAMS Continuing Education Office and the writing of our Joint Accreditation self-study,” said Jan Shorey, M.D., associate provost for faculty.