On December 7, 2020, the Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education received notice that the governing bodies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Accreditation Program (ANCC) had completed their review of our application for Joint Accreditation as a provider of continuing education for the healthcare team and granted Stanford Medicine Joint Accreditation for 6 years through November 2026.

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ offers organizations the opportunity to be simultaneously accredited to provide continuing education activities for multiple professions through a single, unified application process, fee structure, and set of accreditation standards. Jointly accredited providers may choose to award single profession or interprofessional continuing education credit (IPCE) to athletic trainers, dentists, dietitians, nurses, optometrists, PAs, pharmacists, physicians, psychologists, and social workers without needing to obtain separate accreditations. Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ is the first and only process in the world offering this benefit.

Stanford Medicine is now able to award credit for the professions below:

• Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
• Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)
• American Dental Association (ADA)
• American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• American Academy of PAs (AAPA)
• Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry’s Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (ARBO/COPE)
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
• Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer (BOC)
• Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR)

Interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) is when members from two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes (ACCME, ACPE, ANCC 2015).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), interprofessional education (IPE) is an action that “occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes” (WHO, 2010). IPE is designed to address the professional practice gaps of the healthcare team using an educational planning process that reflects input from the professionals who make up the team. The education is designed to change the skills/strategy, performance, or patient outcomes of the healthcare team.

Joint Accreditation enables IPE by aligning the accrediting systems of three global leaders so organizations that choose to develop education for the healthcare team can satisfy all accreditation requirements via a single, unified application process, eligibility criteria, and fee structure.

Joint Accreditation criteria require that Interprofessional Continuing Education activities are planned by and for the healthcare team. For activities that are focused on multiple professions, the planning team should reflect the professions and credit types being targeted by the activity.

Jointly accredited continuing education providers must meet rigorous standards for educational quality and independence – including the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. With the joint accreditation initiative, we seek to assure the public that healthcare teams receive education that is designed to be independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in improving the quality and safety of care delivered by the team.

You can learn more about Joint Accreditation by visiting their website.