Office of Continuing Education

August 2011 CFMC OCE Newsletter

Physician AttributesWhat are “Desirable Physician Attributes”?

Criteria 6 of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Essential Areas and Their Elements requires that activities be developed in the context of desirable physician attributes. What does this mean? The term “physician attributes” is broad. For example, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) each have articulated competencies that they would like all physicians to acquire.1 In 2003, the IOM proposed a set of five core competencies that all health care professionals should possess and has recommended that these be used as an overarching vision for all healthcare professional education in the 21st century. Deficiencies in the quality of patient care and safety, rapid changes in the healthcare environment, and technological advances have all warranted a reform of education for healthcare professionals. Although there are many other organizations that have described abilities or competencies, we will focus on the competencies from the three organizations (ACGME, ABMS, and IOM) stated above.

Your planning team should be developing your activity around these core competencies. Please note that your activity may address more than one competency. For example, it may address the application of evolving clinical knowledge to patient care, while also applying quality improvement measures that identify errors in care. Or, is your activity about systems-based practice? In other words, will your activity address an awareness of a larger context and system for healthcare and the ability to effectively call on system resources to provide optimal patient care? Perhaps your activity incorporates interpersonal and communication skills and addresses teaming with patients, their families, and other health professionals to effectively share information. It is important to remember that ninety percent of physicians in the United States are involved in board certification and are required to participate in maintenance of certification and demonstrate that they’re participating in programs and educational activities that are linked to a competency.1 Incorporating core competencies not only satisfies the ACCME criteria, but provides an advantageous service to your learners.

Below are a list of desirable physician attributes/competencies from the ACGME/ABMS and IOM.

ACGME/ABMS CORE COMPETENCIES:2Core Competencies

  • PATIENT CARE: Provide care that is compassionate, appropriate and effective treatment for health problems and to promote health.
  • MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE: Demonstrate knowledge about established and evolving biomedical, clinical and cognate sciences and their application in patient care.
  • INTERPERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Demonstrate skills that result in effective information exchange and teaming with patients, their families and professional associates (e.g. fostering a therapeutic relationship that is ethically sound, uses effective listening skills with non-verbal and verbal communication; working as both a team member and at times as a leader).
  • PROFESSIONALISM: Demonstrate a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles and sensitivity to diverse patient populations.
  • SYSTEMS-BASED PRACTICE: Demonstrate awareness of and responsibility to larger context and systems of healthcare. Be able to call on system resources to provide optimal care (e.g. coordinating care across sites or serving as the primary case manager when care involves multiple specialties, professions or sites.
  • PRACTICE-BASED LEARNING AND IMPROVEMENT: Able to investigate and evaluate their patient care practices, appraise and assimilate scientific evidence and improve their practice of medicine.

IOM:3

  • PROVIDE PATIENT-CENTERED CARE: Identify, respect, and care about patients' differences, values, preferences, and expressed needs; listen to, clearly inform, communicate with, and educate patients; share decision making and management; and continuously advocate disease prevention, wellness, and promotion of healthy lifestyles, including a focus on population health.
  • WORK IN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMS: Cooperate, collaborate, communicate, and integrate care in teams to ensure that care is continuous and reliable.
  • EMPLOY EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE: Integrate best research with clinical expertise and patient values for optimum care, and participate in learning and research activities to the extent feasible.
  • APPLY QUALITY IMPROVEMENT: Identify errors and hazards in care; understand and implement basic safety design principles, such as standardization and simplification; continually understand and measure quality of care in terms of structure, process, and outcomes in relation to patient and community needs; and design and test interventions to change processes and systems of care, with the objective of improving quality.
  • UTILIZE INFORMATICS: Communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making using information technology.

References:

  1. Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. Desirable Physician Attributes. Available at: http://education.accme.org/files/E105_20091120_transcript.pdf. Accessed August 2011.
  2. American Board of Medical Specialties. Core Competencies. Available at: http://www.abms.org/Maintenance_of_Certification/MOC_competencies.aspx. Accessed August 2011.
  3. Institute of Medicine. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. Available at: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2003/Health-Professions-Education-A-Bridge-to-Quality.aspx. Accessed August 2011.
     

 

Take YOUR Education National with CFMC’s eLearning Solutions

CFMC’s Office of Continuing Education supports its customers in taking their education national through the use of CFMC’s new product: online eLearning services. By combining our experience in continuing education content with superb technological resources, CFMC’s Office of Continuing Education now develops and executes high-quality online healthcare educational courses.

In today’s market, online education is a major asset to any healthcare organization’s continuing education program.

  • National Audience
  • Affordable
  • Convenient Learning Resource—Available to Learners 24/7
  • Accredited Programs Developed applying Adult Learning Principles
  • Electronic Evaluations & Outcomes Measurement Tools
  • Immediate Credit Certificate Delivery
  • In-house Technical Assistance
  • CME Consulting Services
  • Live & Online Courses

Visit yourCEsource.org for more information about our continuing education services to award credit to physicians, nurses, psychologists, and others. You may also call Lorraine Pickrell at 1-800-950-8250, ext. 3372.

 

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