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Discover how health care education programs can prove their quality and legitimacy to patients, clinical partners, regulators, professional associations, and credentialing bodies.
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Welcome ! • Michael White • Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools
Changes to the ABHES Accreditation Standards
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • The Guilds • The Credentialing Bodies
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • Health Care Education prepares every graduate for responsibility that can be the difference between life and death.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • Health Care Education prepares every graduate for responsibility that can be the difference between life and death. • In Health Care Education: • - It is unacceptable for any health care education program to provide substandard education. • AND • - It is unacceptable to graduate any individual who is not prepared for the responsibility.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • THEREFORE: • Every education program must: • Teach the “right stuff” And • Assure that every graduate meets specific, carefully considered competencies. • The Mission • Health Care Education prepares each graduate for responsibility that can be the difference between life and death. • In Health Care Education: • - It is unacceptable for any health care education program to provide substandard education. • AND • - It is unacceptable to graduate any individual who is not prepared for the responsibility.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • The Means • Health Care Education today includes substantial clinical education obtained in health care facilities providing treatment to patients.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment THEREFORE: Education programs must have reliable partnerships with health care providers. These clinical partners must be able to trust that educational programs are of unimpeachable quality. • The Mission • The Means • Health Care Education today includes substantial clinical education obtained in health care facilities providing treatment to patients.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • States routinely regulate the practice of health care professions. • Increasingly this is expanding to historically unregulated allied health occupations.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment THEREFORE: Education programs must gain the confidence of state legislatures and of state licensing boards that determine the education required as a prerequisite to employment. • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • States routinely regulate the practice of health care professions, and increasingly this is expanding to historically unregulated allied health occupations.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • The Guilds • Trade associations of various health care occupations are increasingly well organized and are successfully lobbying legislatures and employers to influence employment laws and employer hiring decisions.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment THEREFORE: Education programs must persuade these influential groups of their quality and their right to participate in preparing graduates for entry into the field. • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • The Guilds • Trade associations of various health care occupations are increasingly well organized and are successfully lobbying legislatures and employers to influence employment laws and employer decisions.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • The Guilds • The Credentialing Bodies • A.Those who create and administer examinations that purport to measure individual competency in various health care fields are successfully persuading regulators and employers to rely on their exams.
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • The Guilds • The Credentialing Bodies • B.Those who create and administer examinations that purport to measure individual competency in health care fields often specify the education that an individual must have to sit for the exam .
The Health Care EducationEnvironment • THEREFORE: • Education programs must persuade these credentialing organizations of their quality and the right of their graduates to sit for critical or beneficial exams. • The Mission • The Means • The Regulation • The Guilds • The Credentialing Bodies • Those who create and administer examinations that purport to measure individual competency in health care fields often specify the education that an individual must have to sit for the exam .
The Health Care EducationEnvironment Patients, Clinical Partners, Regulators, Professional Associations and Credentialers are looking for evidence of the quality of your health care education programs. ??? How can you prove yourself? • SUMMARY: Health Care education programs must objectively verify their legitimacy : • To protect the lives of patients. • To obtain and maintain clinical partners. • To satisfy state licensing boards. • To combat guild activity. • To participate in credentialing examinations.
Accreditation 101(courtesy U.S. DOE) • “The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality.”
Accreditation 101(courtesy U.S. DOE) • “The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality.” Had the DOE stopped here, then you might have been in pretty good shape!
Accreditation 101(courtesy U.S. DOE) “There are two basic types of educational accreditation, one identified as "institutional" and one referred to as "specialized" or "programmatic.”” “Institutional accreditation normally applies to an entire institution, indicating that each of an institution's parts is contributing to the achievement of the institution's objectives, although not necessarily all at the same level of quality. The various commissions of the regionalaccrediting associations, for example, perform institutional accreditation, as do many national accrediting agencies.”
The Accreditation Credibility Gap • THESE IDEAS (right or wrong) ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ! ! ! • Institutional Accreditation does not assure the quality of individual programs, and • Programmatic Accreditation is needed to verify that specific educational programs are of quality.
The Accreditation Credibility Gap These ideas (right or wrong) have dramatic consequences for you in assuring clinical partners, regulators, trade associations, and credentialing organizations that your programs are legitimate. • Those who think they understand accreditation think that: • 1) Institutional Accreditation does not assure the quality of programs, and • 2) Programmatic Accreditation is needed to trust that specific educational programs are of quality.
The Accreditation Credibility Gap These ideas (right or wrong) have dramatic consequences for you in assuring clinical partners, regulators, trade associations, and credentialing organizations that your programs are legitimate. THE MYTH OF PROGRAMMATIC ACCREDITATION • Those who think they understand accreditation think that: • 1) Institutional Accreditation does not assure the quality of programs, and • 2) Programmatic Accreditation is needed to trust that specific educational programs are of quality.
The Myth • “ Because Institutional Accreditation cannot verify quality of each program, in the critical fields of health care education only those graduates who complete programs that are programmatically accredited can be allowed to go to work.”
The Myth • This myth is being vigorously and successfully promoted to state legislatures and licensing boards across the country and is now having, or will eventually have, serious impact your ability to offer educational programs.
The Impact on You Increasingly, the education required to work in health care fields is being redefined as programmatically accredited education. We are moving to a future where schools that focus on health care education may have to obtain and maintain separate, specific accreditation for every program they offer.
The Impact on You • Increasingly, the education required to work in health care fields is being redefined as programmatically accredited education. • We are moving to a future where schools that focus on health care education may have to obtain and maintain separate, specific accreditation for every program they offer. So What ?
The Impact on You • Concerns: • Multiple, separate accrediting bodies with individual standards, procedures, processes, vocabularies, interpretations, grant lengths, costs, etc., etc.
The Impact on You • Concerns: • Multiple, separate accrediting bodies with individual standards, procedures, processes, vocabularies, interpretations, grant lengths, costs, etc., etc. • The present and historic relationships of many programmatic accreditors.
The Impact on You • Concerns: • Multiple, separate accrediting bodies with individual standards, procedures, processes, vocabularies, interpretations, grant lengths, costs, etc., etc. • The present and historic relationships of many programmatic accreditors. A. Many programmatic accreditors are very closely associated with trade associations and may be more concerned with the interests of those in the field than they are in academic quality and outcomes.
The Impact on You • Concerns: • Multiple, separate accrediting bodies with individual standards, procedures, processes, vocabularies, interpretations, grant lengths, costs, etc., etc. • The present and historic relationships of many programmatic accreditors. B. Many programmatic accreditors are historically associated with regional accreditation and public schools and have little experience with “for profit” education.
The Impact on You • Results include (examples): • Requiring “Regional Accreditation.” • Standards to limit size of programs. • Requiring instructors with master’s degrees to teach in associate degree programs / bachelor’s to teach in certificate programs. • Mandating curriculum / student achievement measures approved by “sister” trade association. • Extraordinary outcomes requirements.
Vision • “Accreditation that works for you:” • Helps in protecting patients by verifying that your programs teach the “right stuff” and that you evaluate competencies realistically and effectively, • Assures clinical partners, regulators, trade associations and credentialers, that every program you teach meets quality standards, and • Does all of this institutionally so that you are not required to have multiple accreditations.
A) ABHES is the only agency recognized by the United States Department of Education specifically to accredit institutions that focus on health care education.
(A)ABHES is the only agency recognized by the United States Department of Education specifically to accredit institutions that specialize in health care education. • This specific scope is by design.(lives are at stake - expertise) • DOE recognition is conditioned on the fact that ABHES is independent of any trade association.(objectivity – no trade ties)
(B) ABHES institutional accreditation is based on the requirement that every educational program at an institution separately document that it complies with detailed standards for educational quality and graduate outcomes. These are standards developed and applied by experts in health care education. • Contrary to the DOE description of accreditation – ABHES institutional accreditation DOES verify that every program meets specific quality standards.
These specific quality standards include proof that the program is the right length, has the right content in the right sequence, is taught by qualified faculty using proper resources and techniques, provides appropriate clinical education, and that students are assessed against stated objectives, competencies and curriculum goals. CURRENT STANDARDS CHAPTER IV – GENERAL EVALUATION STANDARDS SECTION H – Curriculum, Instruction, and Programs SECTION I – Examinations and Student Progress SECTION J – Student Services SECTION K – Student Satisfaction SECTION L – Faculty SECTION M – Physical Environment Each of these sections applies to each educational program offered. Together, they require an institution to document the quality of all aspects of each program.
Simply stated, accreditation by ABHES, whether institutional or programmatic, means that every student has been afforded the education needed to be able to work as a health care professional in the field.
Standards that Define Excellence In Health Care Education I can’t
Standards that Define Excellence In Health Care Education • I can’t . . . • Because notwithstanding all of this . . . • Regulators are considering and are passing laws and rules that require programmatic (or regional) accreditation. • Trade associations are lobbying for their closely related programmatic accreditors to require you to obtain their approval to offer various health care programs.
Standards that Define Excellence In Health Care Education • I can’t . . . • Because notwithstanding all of this . . . • States are considering and are passing legislation that denies equal access to ABHES graduates (and grads of other nationally accredited schools) • Trade associations are lobbying for their closely related programmatic accreditors and credentialing bodies to require you to obtain their approval to offer various health care programs. ABHES has been actively working to educate legislatures, trade associations, and credentialing bodies to the fact that ABHES accreditation is not like other institutional accreditation.
Standards that Define Excellence In Health Care Education • I can’t . . . • Because notwithstanding all of this . . . • States are considering and are passing legislation that denies equal access to ABHES graduates (and grads of other nationally accredited schools) • Trade associations are lobbying for their closely related programmatic accreditors and credentialing bodies to require you to obtain their approval to offer various health care programs. Our results have been mixed. Those familiar with regional, institutional accreditation have a hard time believing that we actually put each program under a microscope.
NEW STANDARDS:OVERVIEW I . “Elimination” of Chapter IV – General Evaluation Standards At present, Chapter IV contains all of the “evaluative” standards that are not specific to degree programs or to specific programmatic accrediation. • Part of the problem has been of our own making !! • The evaluation standards of Chapter IV - the “guts” of your Self-Evaluation Reports and of Team Visits – mix together under one heading: • criteria that evaluate each individual educational program, and • criteria that evaluate overall institutional operations.
Standards Evolution • For more than two years, the ABHES Standards Review Committee and the ABHES Commission have worked to revise the Accreditation Manual.
