Continuing Education in Simulation

Abstract

Healthcare professionals have an ethical obligation to maintain competency and provide the best evidence-based care available. They do not stop their education at the end of formal training, but continue throughout their careers, learning and updating cognitive knowledge, psychomotor skills, and teamwork techniques through continuing education (CE). Most healthcare disciplines have an accrediting organization that oversees the provision of continuing education for its practitioners. These organizations seek to assure the public that healthcare education is free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in improving the quality and safety of patient care. Participation in accredited CE helps healthcare workers meet requirements for maintenance of licensure, maintenance of specialty board certification, credentialing, membership in professional societies, and other professional privileges. Every state medical board has its own requirements for license renewal through the completion of CE credit hours. Several healthcare organizations have been developed to support and foster the practice of simulation education in healthcare and provide simulation-based continuing education. This chapter will review the key concepts of CE in healthcare, as well as provide a brief overview of the organizations that include simulation as a component of their CE offerings. This chapter will conclude with a case study of the CE content development process, using the simulation-based CE activity, the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH), as an exemplar.