Continuing Professional Development Activities Provided by Continuing Pharmacy Education Providers.

OBJECTIVE: To describe continuing professional development (CPD)-related continuing pharmacy education (CPE) activities from 2018 through 2023. METHODS: This was an exploratory study using CPE activities offered by US-based accredited providers from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Provider Web Tool. Activities were selected based on submission and expiration date, which included activities active from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2023. The words "professional development" were used to search for CPE activities based on titles. Frequencies were calculated for provider type, delivery method, and activity types. Content analysis was used to identify categories, subcategories, and elements or components of the CPD cycle from activity titles and learning objectives. RESULTS: A total of 204 activities were identified, with the most common provider type being college or school which provided 41% (n = 83) of the activities. Most activities were designed for pharmacists 76% (n = 156) and primarily delivered in a live seminar format (68%, n = 138) and used a single delivery method (92%, n = 187). Content analysis identified 7 categories and 23 subcategories of activities. Of the 7 activity categories, only 3 had subcategories which reflected elements or components of CPD: precepting and teaching; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and CPD process and principles. CONCLUSION: This study identified that most CPE activities and learning objectives reflected educational interventions without the inclusion or use of the CPD cycle or process, suggesting that additional provider education on the implementation of CPD and differentiation between CPE and CPD may be necessary.

Current and Future Opportunities and Challenges in Continuing Pharmacy Education: A 2024 Update.

Following a 2015 conference on the future of continuing pharmacy education (CPE), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education's Board of Directors ratified recommendations to address two key questions: (1) "What next steps should the profession take to ensure practitioner competence based on marketplace and regulatory changes in the next 10 to 15 years?" and (2) "How can the value of CPE be optimized over the next 10 to 15 years?" In this article, we describe how these recommendations have been addressed since the 2015 conference, highlighting advancements in technology and the adoption of continuing professional development, and describe future directions and additional opportunities to optimize CPE.

The Intersection of Growth Mindset and Accreditation in Pharmacy Education.

OBJECTIVES: To describe existing growth mindset literature within pharmacy and health care education, describe how a growth mindset can be beneficial in the accreditation process, and propose potential ways to promote a growth mindset in faculty, preceptors, students, and staff within pharmacy education. FINDINGS: To help pharmacy learners develop a growth mindset, existing literature emphasizes the need for a shift toward and aligning assessment with a growth mindset, helping to create self-directed adaptive learners, leading to health care providers who can adjust their practice to tackle expected and unexpected challenges throughout their careers. Strategies to create a culture of growth mindset identified include training faculty and learners on growth mindset and developing new assessments that track a learner's growth. Recommendations for pharmacy educators include encouraging educators to assess their own growth mindset and use a variety of teaching methods and provide feedback on learner effort that encourages the process of learning rather than focusing on individual attributes, traits, and results. SUMMARY: Growth mindset intersects with accreditation standards for both professional degree programs and providers of continuing pharmacy education. Continuing professional development process is one way to encourage faculty, staff, and students to develop a growth mindset. While a growth mindset can have many positive impacts on pharmacy accreditation, it is essential to recognize that achieving and maintaining accreditation is a multifaceted process involving numerous factors. A growth mindset can positively influence pharmacy education accreditation by fostering a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, resilience, student-centeredness, data-driven decision-making, collaboration, and effective leadership.

Principles for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programs: A Statement by the ACPE CPD Advisory Committee.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has received increased attention within the pharmacy profession in the United States and is recognized as a potential pathway for ongoing professional development and practice transformation. Despite potential benefits of CPD, adoption in the United States has remained limited. A CPD program accreditation pathway, including principles, guidance, and a credit system for CPD programs, has recently been approved by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Board of Directors. This commentary reviews existing literature regarding pharmacy CPD, introduces CPD program principles and guidance for CPD program providers, and describes the model for awarding CPD units.

Leading Change Together: Supporting Collaborative Practice through Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education.

Interprofessional continuing education in support of team-based care is a critical component of healthcare quality and safety. In an effort to develop and advance the field of interprofessional continuing education (IPCE), the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) collaborated to launch Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™, the first and only accrediting body in the world to offer the opportunity to be simultaneously accredited to provide CE activities for multiple healthcare professions through a single, unified application process, fee structure, and set of accreditation standards. To date, seven additional professions have joined Joint Accreditation: athletic trainers, dentists, dieticians, optometrists, physician associates/physician assistants (PAs), psychologists, and social workers. With this expansion, jointly accredited organisations can choose to offer IPCE for up to ten professions without needing to attain separate accreditations. Jointly accredited providers are able to offer education that is designed for single professions, multiple professions, and interprofessional teams, as long as 25% of the education is interprofessional. This innovation facilitates and incentivises IPCE which leads to improved healthcare delivery and better patient outcomes. To effectively integrate interprofessional collaborative practice throughout healthcare systems across the world, IPCE needs to become an integral part of lifelong learning for all health professions. There are several jointly accredited organisations that operate outside of the USA, and interest in Joint Accreditation and IPCE continues to grow.

A Collaboration Between Government and the Continuing Education Community Tackles the Opioid Crisis: Lessons Learned and Future Opportunities.

In 2016, 116 people died each day from opioid-related drug overdoses and in 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. During the preceding years, the continuing education (CE) accreditors in the health professions identified a need for a strategic, coordinated effort that would involve an interprofessional coalition of multiple stakeholders to respond to this emerging public health challenge. The Conjoint Committee on Continuing Education, a national coalition of organizations in the professions of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and physician assistants, stepped up to assume a leadership position. To address the scope of safety issues involved in opioids, the US Food and Drug Administration required that extended-release and long-acting opioid analgesic product manufacturers make training available to prescribers of their products and recommended that the training should be conducted by accredited, independent CE providers. CE accreditors in the health professions initiated an unprecedented collaboration that leveraged the accredited CE community to deliver prescriber education as part of the Food and Drug Administration Opioid Analgesics Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. This article describes the history of this interprofessional collaboration including lessons learned and opportunities for future collaboration to address public health issues.

Current and Future Opportunities and Challenges in Continuing Pharmacy Education.

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) convened a consensus-seeking invitational conference on October 29-30, 2015, in Chicago, Ill. ACPE's desire to have stakeholder guidance on its role in the future of continuing pharmacy education and continuing professional development led to the convening of the conference. The purpose of this article is to summarize the proceedings of the conference, including the recommendations from the stakeholders.

Forty Years of ACPE CPE Accreditation.

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) Provider Accreditation Program has been in existence for 40 years. During this time, the program has expanded and has been offered to a various types of providers, not only academic-based providers. ACPE credit has been offered to an increasing number of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other health professionals. This paper explains the evolution of the CPE Provider Accreditation Program, including the Definition of Continuing Education for the Profession of Pharmacy, its standards, types of activities (knowledge, application, and practice), CPE Monitor, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

Simulation and introductory pharmacy practice experiences.

This paper reviews the literature on the various types of simulation and their incorporation into health professions curricula, describes how simulation training is recognized in other professions, and evaluates the feasibility of integrating simulation into experiential education programs of colleges and schools of pharmacy. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Board of Directors develop standards and guidelines on the use of simulation as part of introductory pharmacy practice experiences within the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.