Continuing professional development—or more informally, continuing education (CE)—is an important core competency and member benefit of the Association for Vascular Access (AVA). It is why so many of our 3200 members and 7000 guests have embraced our vast array of digital education over the past 2 years of COVID-19. Never before have the healthcare professions seen such a dramatic shift from the comfortable and familiar face-to-face seminars, conferences, and local events to the dynamic delivery of impactful webinars, podcasts, and online education. While I believe it is safe to say that we all miss the personal interaction with our peers, digital continuing education has opened up AVA’s tremendous resources to so many more clinicians who want to improve their practice.The question is why, when we are all exhausted, does the demand for quality, innovative CE continue to increase? A recent article, “Lifelong Learning and Nurses’ Continuing Professional Development, a Metasynthesis of Literature,” provides a solid exploration of the why and indicates what more needs to be done.1 While the article focuses on nurses, I believe the core elements can be extended to physicians, advanced practice providers, and allied health providers.There are 5 overarching themes to continuing education, according to the article. I have condensed them to (1) organizational culture and a supportive environment, (2) personal motivation and attitudes toward CE, and (3) perceived impact on professionalism and desire to improve patient care standards.Numbers 2 and 3 are easy: Not only is continuing education required in the healthcare professions, but it is also part of our very fiber. Vascular specialists value lifelong learning; we are a curious and innovative cohort.Organizational culture and an environment supportive to learning is a little more problematic. The article notes that CE (and academic learning) is vital to improving our skills, acquiring new knowledge, and applying recent evidence to practice. There is sometimes a disconnect between what is offered by our institutions and what the individual healthcare professional wants and needs. This is especially important to the vascular access specialty. Our institutions simply cannot provide the cutting edge, best-practices education that will make the impact we want to deliver in patient safety and comfort. The last decade has seen employers continuing to cut employee professional development allowances. Many times, this results in employee dissatisfaction and, in turn, has had a detrimental effect on retention, according to a Becker’s Hospital Review article.2In this time of the “great resignation,” I implore our employers to support our vascular specialists by increasing both staff and money so that we, both as a VA team and as individuals, can improve patient care and our professions. This is where AVA excels with its specialized CE offerings and the new ACE by AVA program, which offers education, skills development, and a competency verification method. Additionally, the prelicensure Fundamentals of Peripheral IV Access curriculum (which will have a professional-level course in late 2022) supports the demand for new skills as outlined in the 2022 Health Care Talent Scan report by the American Hospital Association.3So here’s your call to action: Support your professional development by taking this article to your chief nursing, chief medical, or professional development directors, to your department chair, or to whoever approves professional development programs so that they can better understand that AVA makes a difference to you and why they should support your AVA participation and membership.
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Jan 1, 2024
Gustavo De Souza + 2
Open Access