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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Continuing Education in Healthcare Professions

Accreditation Requirements for Continuing Education

JA logoIn support of improving patient care, Indiana University School of Medicine's Office of Continuing Education in Healthcare Professions is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the health care team.

Under the Joint Accreditation (JA) guidelines, IU School of Medicine can award credit to physicians, nurses, and pharmacists through a single, unified application process and set of accreditation standards. IU School of Medicine can also provide verification of attendance to other members of the health care team, including dentists, dietitians, optometrists, physician assistants, psychologists, and social workers.

IU School of Medicine maintains responsibility for ensuring that all continuing education activities meet accepted standards of education and serve to maintain, develop or increase knowledge, skills, and performance of healthcare professionals to improve the quality of care for patients and their communities.

Joint Accreditation Expectations

The Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education identifies, develops and promotes standards for quality continuing education that is planned by and for the healthcare team. IU School of Medicine must follow rigorous standards to ensure that all education is planned and implemented independently and free of commercial bias, as well as effective in improving the quality of care delivered by the healthcare team.

Those seeking continuing education credit from IU School of Medicine for educational activities and learning initiatives must follow established policies, procedures and practices designed to ensure that these standards are met and overall accreditation is maintained.

Continuing Education Requirements

Continuing education activities must be designed to improve one or more of the following: knowledge, skills, and/or strategies of the healthcare team, performance in interprofessional practice, and/or patient-level outcomes.

Continuing education activities must align with all components of the continuing education mission.

Continuing education activities must address professional practice gaps of the healthcare team. The practice gap is defined as the difference between current and best practice.

Continuing education activities must be planned with needs-assessment data.

Continuing education activities must include content that matches the intended learners’ current or potential scope of practice, is developed in the context of desirable attributes of the healthcare team, and is delivered using educational formats appropriate for the setting, objectives and desired results of the activity.

Continuing education activities must be compliant with the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence to ensure that accredited activities are free from commercial bias and based on valid content

Continuing education activities must evaluate the effectiveness of the learning intervention to determine changes in skills, strategy, or performance as a member of the healthcare team; the overall impact on the healthcare team; and/or the impact on patient-level outcomes.

Continuing education activities must promote active learning so that healthcare teams learn from, with, and about each other – consistent with the desired results of the activity