The benefits of accrediting institutions and organisations as providers of continuing professional education

Abstract

Professionals learn and change throughout their careers. This continuing professional development is supported, in part, by educational activities developed by individuals, organisations or institutions.

In Europe and North America, processes have been established to set standards for the design and delivery of continuing healthcare professionals’ education (CE) that involve either approval of organisations as institutional providers of CE (i.e. accreditation) or approval of individual CE activities.

In systems based on provider accreditation, the accredited organisations develop into communities of practice that show evidence of learning and changing such as to allow the CE system to evolve. In addition the provider accreditation model provides an amplification effect not found in activity accreditation systems, whereby one accreditation decision can result in multiple activities being generated. Additional efficiencies can be identified and may be useful to those determining if a provider accreditation system is an appropriate fit for their system, for their context and for the culture of professional education in which they operate.

Keywords::

• accreditation
• continuing
• medical
• education