What evidence suggests that current CEUs aren’t the optimal way?

Continuing Professional Certification (CPC) is overall guidance for health care professionals’ requirements for continuing competence and maintenance of certification that are grounded in the core competencies identified in the Institute of Medicine (IOM), now the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) report “Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality” (2003) and reiterated in other IOM/ NAM reports, such as “Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions” (2010), as well as the latest edition of the Institute of Credentialing Excellence (ICE) “Certification: The ICE Handbook” (2019).

• Provide patient-centered care
• Work in interdisciplinary teams
• Employ evidence-based practice
• Apply quality improvement
• Utilize informatics

Evidence has shown that across the health care professions, CEUs alone aren’t as effective or practical as they could be, and much of the medical field is evolving their approach, including nursing, occupational therapy, physician assistants and dietetics.

Executive Summary: Institute of Medicine. 2003. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10681.

Executive Summary: Institute of Medicine. 2010. Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12704.

Institute for Credentialing Excellence. 2019. Certification: The ICE Handbook. Washington, DC: Institute for Credentialing Excellence. Chapter 24: Reframing Recertification for Continuing Competence, p559-578.