As the number of continuing education activities designed and conducted for multiple types of professionals within the UAB healthcare enterprise has continued to increase over the last decade, our different certification and credentialing offices have engaged in a review process to identify opportunities for streamlining certification across the School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and UAB Hospital Department of Pharmacy and provide additional support for the design elements, support processes, and assessment of team-based education to further the mission and goals of the university and health care system.
This continuing education collaborative has aligned and implemented a set of processes that fuses individual requirements to meet a common set of criteria for interprofessional education and ensure that activities seeking multiple certifications can do so within a single framework.
If you are planning an activity that involves professionals from nursing, medicine, or pharmacy, please contact us to discuss the details of your activity and initiate the process for completing our common intake review form.
The UAB Interprofessional Continuing Education Collaborative
The mission of the UAB Interprofessional Healthcare Education Collaborative is to provide an educational program for healthcare professionals and trainees that is effective in increasing knowledge, awareness, and competence, enhances performance, and improves patient and community health. We support the broader University mission of research, education, and clinical practice, working together with both educational and professional units within the spectrum of healthcare provider education, faculty development, and quality improvement.
The Collaborative also supports and contributes to the UAB research enterprise, serving as a bridge to the internal and external practice community for clinical departments and interdisciplinary, university-wide centers, and as a catalyst for research on education effectiveness.
CEC Steering Committee
The CEC steering committee consists of representatives from the UAB Hospital Department of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Center for Interprofessional Education and Simulation. This committee oversees the design and development of activity intake procedures, education planning, needs analysis, structure and assessment to ensure that interprofessional activities meet standards for collaboration and teamwork set by Joint accreditation criteria.Committee Members
Pharmacy: Tomie Ann Boackle, PharmD; Stacy Bruce, PharmD, BCPS; Holly Batusic
Nursing: Penni Watts, PhD; Cynthia Helms; John Huffstutler
Medicine: Ronan O’Beirne, EdD; James Willig, MD
Center for Interprofessional Education and Simulation: Dawn Taylor Peterson, PhD; Peter Bosworth, Shelly Camp
Intended Audiences
The UAB Continuing Education Collective (CEC) serves healthcare professionals in the UAB academic medical center, members of our affiliate healthcare organizations, community and regional Network, and others practicing nationally and globally. Recognizing that improved patient and community health occurs in complex clinical systems, our services often extend to physicians-in-training and other related healthcare professionals, including nurses, physicians and physician assistants, pharmacists, social workers, community healthcare workers, and others.
Content Areas
Substantive content presented to our intended audience includes all areas of professional health care. Topics include traditional areas of basic science, clinical medicine, patient care, and public health, as well as more contemporary themes of team competencies, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication, quality improvement, patient-centered care, leadership, and innovation.
Types of Activities
The UAB Interprofessional Healthcare Education Collaborative provides a wide variety of educational initiatives including single- and multi-day live courses, regularly-scheduled series, Internet enduring materials, journal-based activities, and performance improvement activities. The type of educational format used to deliver educational content is determined by a number of factors, but is always primarily driven by the needs of the intended audience, evidence-based outcomes, and key principles of adult learning and theories of human behavior change.
*WHO (World Health Organization). Framework for action on interprofessional education and collaborative practice. 2010.