AUBMC Continuing Professional Education Institute

Abstract

Background: Continuing Professional Education for healthcare professionals has been determined to be the most important cost effective methods that increases productivity and decreases the gap between evidence based practices and patient care. The Continuing Medical Education office (CME) at AUB-MC is a pioneer in providing continuing education activities for all health care specialties despite the limited number of employees, professional staff and services compared with the high demands. Purpose: The purpose of this project is to propose a progression plan for this CME office into a professional development institute. This prospective institute will be designed in a cost effective manner in order to offer a wide range of trainings to a bigger volume of health care providers in a scientific evidenced based manner through qualified professionals. The main goal for this institute is to reach out to most health care professionals locally and internationally providing them with professional development coaching with the ultimate goal of improving health care at the point of service. Institute design: The Continuing Medical Education Institute will be composed of nine specialized departments that are coordinated by specialized healthcare professionals who will use all available resources for the benefit of the educational projects. Monitoring quality within the institute and benchmarking with international bodies will be one of the most important responsibility of the quality services department, whereas the research services will be held accountable for initiating accurate need assessments through research tools, evaluating impact of the educational activities on patient outcomes and publishing new articles. Collaboration with AUB and AUBMC departments will stay of high importance. Training of all staff members (which are estimated to be 18 in number) and setting policies and procedures are highly recommended in order to facilitate this transition. Recommendations: Our main recommendation is to develop this propos