The Role and Rise of Interprofessional Continuing Education

Abstract

For decades, health leadership organizations have identified interprofessional education and team-based care as a critical component of health care quality and safety. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has issued a series of reports demonstrating the relationship between poor team performance and negative patient outcome and has called on accreditors, licensing and certifying bodies to use their oversight processes as levers for change. Toward that end, three of the national accreditors in medicine, nursing and pharmacy collaborated to create a unified accreditation system, setting standards for interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) and establishing an IPCE credit that designates activities planned by and for health care teams. There is evidence supporting the relationship between engagement in IPCE and improvements in health care professionals' knowledge, attitudes, competence and performance, as well as patient and system outcomes. The accreditors believe that this evidence base is strong enough to justify including IPCE in regulatory requirements. In 2018, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) recognized IPCE credit as an additional means of satisfying CME requirements for medical license renewal. The increasing recognition of IPCE demonstrates the pivotal role of accreditors and regulators in driving the advancement of IPCE and team care now and in the future.

Evidence for continuing professional development standards for regulated health practitioners in Australia: a systematic review

“…The case series published by a joint accreditation board in the United States lends further support to the above findings [33]. For example, interprofessional team-based CPD using simulation to teach health-care teams how to care for children with heart disease presenting to the emergency ward of a children's hospital was shown to lead to changes in protocols, processes and procedures, that resulted in increased use of the hospital emergency care system and the inclusion of electrocardiogram technicians in the care team.…”

“…[ 17 ] New Zealand Military GPs, ICU/emergency nurses, military and civilian nurses, resident medical officers 10 studies RQ 1—quantity of CPD Medium Wallace and May [ 21 ] United States Medical practitioners 62 studies RQ 2—type of CPD Medium Descriptive a Clark [ 50 ] Canada Occupational therapists n/a RQ 6—scope of practice n/a McMahon et al . [ 48 ] United States Medical practitioners n/a RQ 4—accreditation n/a Regnier et al [ 33 ] United States Medical practitioners n/a—includes 3 cases RQ 2—type of CPD n/a Regnier et al . [ 43 ] Germany Medical practitioners n/a RQ 4—accreditation n/a a Critical appraisal of the descriptive studies was not possible; however, these have been included as the content is valuable to the topic area …”

“…The systematic review identified two systematic reviews and a case series that examined the effectiveness of interprofessional CPD [31][32][33]. A high quality systematic review found there was a significant increase in new studies focusing on inter-professional CPD rather than inter-professional education for undergraduates, up from 29% (six of 21 studies) in 2007 to 48% (12 of 25 additional studies) in 2016 [31].…”

Historical Perspective and Current State Review: Advancing Lifelong Learning and Continuing Professional Education in Nutrition and Dietetics to Expand Opportunities, Equity, Access, and Future Transformations

“…Interprofessional team-based care is critical for the delivery of safe, high-quality healthcare [26]. The core competencies of interprofessional practice required are those related to values, roles, teamwork, and communication (Figure 1) [27], and the IPCE field is developing and advancing to build these competencies among healthcare professionals [28]. Interprofessional education has also become a part of healthcare professionals' education standards and requirements.…”

Vive la Différence: A Comparison of CPD Quality Assurance Systems in France and The United States

“…Although many CPD activities include other health professionals, they are not specifically designed to promote team collaboration or advance team-based care. To advance interprofessional continuing education, the ACCME joined with its colleague accreditors in nursing and pharmacy to create Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ [ 10 ]. Joint Accreditation, a collaboration that now includes accrediting bodies representing 10 professions, established the standards for continuing education planned by the health care team for the health care team.…”