The recent accreditation of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s (NOSM) Continuing Education and Professional Development program will allow it to be more responsive to the needs of health-care professionals across the North.
Full accreditation was received at the end of April, giving the faculty more independence and flexibility with programming, according to Kim Ferris, director of Continuing Education and Professional Development.
The Continuing Education and Professional Development (CEPD) office delivers faculty development courses and Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programs for family physicians, specialists and other health-care professionals. These programs provide credits recognized by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
The courses help health-care professionals keep abreast of changes in medical care. In order to maintain membership or special designation through the College of Family Physicians of Canada, family doctors are required to obtain 250 credits over a five-year cycle. Specialists registered through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada must obtain 400 credits within a five-year cycle with a minimum of 40 credits per year in order to remain in good standing with the college.
The programs at NOSM have been offered since 2005. Prior to NOSM’s accreditation, all of the courses were accredited in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s (U of T) Continuing Education and Professional Development office. Ferris said the program calendar had to be submitted three months in advance in bulk format for approval by the U of T, rather than on a “respond-as-needed” basis.
Responsive
“It was more costly, less nimble, and not just-in-time delivery,” Ferris said. “Now we are able to be more responsive to the needs of our faculty, community members, hospital partners, and health-care professionals across Northern Ontario.”
The process to become accredited involved several years of working with the University of Toronto, and approximately one-and-a-half years to prepare and submit all of the required documentation to the Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME).
CACME is an independent committee with representation from various Canadian medical associations/authorities and governing medical colleges. It accredits CME/CPD offices of all Canadian faculties of medicine using 15 standards, which cover a wide array of administrative, educational and research issues, according to The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada’s website.
The accreditation now allows NOSM’s CEPD office to offer CME credits. Additionally, the office will help gather and document credits earned by health-care professionals.
“We needed this accreditation in order to move forward,” Ferris said, explaining that they are trying to refine the faculty development program which, initially, made up the majority of the programs offered. “We want to have it really tight, efficient and comprehensive so it can be offered more than once a year.”
Between 250 and 500 programs will be offered over the 2009/2010 calendar year. One hour of academic work is equal to one credit.
Fifteen program planning committees provide input into the courses. These committees represent a cross-section of the population, including Aboriginals, francophones, and urban, rural and remote health-care practitioners, as well as specialists and family physicians.
Social mandate
“At NOSM, we have a social mandate to be responsive to the communities and needs of our people in Northern Ontario,” Ferris said. “All of these committees contribute to the building of our overall CEPD program, which is based on needs.”
Ferris said they look at many organizations that contribute to health care in Ontario and across Canada to also try to determine what the unperceived needs are, such as information and protocols around pandemics.
Traditionally, many CEPD programs are offered from September to June using a face-to-face model of delivery. However, at NOSM, plans are underway to make the programs available during the summer and in a format that responds to the distribution of Northern Ontario’s health-care professionals.
“We’re trying to respond to the needs of the community members by having different events packaged in different ways so they can access these educational activities at the point that best suits them, so it is where they want it, when they want it and how they want it.”
This means moving toward videoconferencing, podcasting, electronic-learning modules, and hard-copy modules for teaching, in addition to the face-to-face interactions.
“This is a program built for the North, by the communities in the North, for the people of the North.”
