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If you’ve dabbled in continuing education for any amount of time, you’ve probably rolled your eyes more than once at the bureaucracy of accrediting bodies that can sometimes feel like it’s getting in the way of your actual training. In reality, those regulations exist to ensure that professionals are staying relevant in their field, and receiving quality education from verified experts. And while all accrediting bodies or approval boards may have different standards, there are some common things approved providers of continuing education will see across many different boards. With that in mind, we’ve created a handy guide to help you navigate through some of the common compliance requirements.
Broadly speaking compliance can be broken down into two aspects of your CE training: (1) educational content - the actual subject matter being taught, and (2) event administration - the logistics of running a CE training.
Educational Content refers to what is actually being taught and who is teaching it. In many cases, this means meeting requirements regarding the following items for each session of an event: description, learning objectives, references, presenter qualifications.
Each session of your training event should let your attendees know exactly what will be taught. Let your prospective attendees know what skills they’ll leave with and what new knowledge will be acquired. Include information about how that content will be taught - for example, will you be using case studies? Small group discussion? Experiential activities? The description should also let prospective attendees know how this content will be relevant to their clinical practice, that is how it will be useful in helping their clients.
Your learning objectives should be simple and concise, describing what skill an attendee can expect to gain by participating in your CE training. Learning objectives should be measurable and observable. Avoid verbs such as “learn,” and “understand,” since these are hard to measure and observe. Using verbs like “list,” “assess,” and “define,” for example, make the overall learning objective easy to observe and measure.
Good educational content is backed by current evidence-based research. Make sure to document the references or citations that support what is being taught, and make sure to consult current peer-reviewed research and journal articles to ensure you have the most up to date information.
Many accreditation boards have certain standards regarding who can teach a course. This often means verifying your presenter’s credentials with a good resume or curriculum vitae (CV). Presenter CV’s should include not only job positions, but also a list of any other presentations or publications. Always make sure to include any licensure information and certifications the presenter has acquired, with the dates those credentials were acquired and the date they expire, if applicable. Documenting presenter qualifications well on a CV helps to demonstrate to accreditation boards that your presenter is an expert on the topic being covered.
It’s not enough just to demonstrate compliance with respect to your educational content. Additionally, boards will want to know that you can run an event with all its moving parts to ensure that prospective attendees are getting the right information, that you're collecting meaningful feedback from those attendees, and that attendees are receiving documentation of their CEs in the correct format.
Oftentimes a credentialing board may ask to view your event’s promotional materials. This may include your event website or landing page (e.g. where prospective attendees are registering for your event), as well as email communications or other advertisements. It's important to make sure your communications about the event are clear and informative. Your website or landing page should have an event description, presenter information, and learning objectives included. It should also include the official approved provider statement from your credentialing board if you are offering CEs.
Most boards have a standardized set of questions they like you to include when collecting feedback from your audience about the event. It will be important to be able to collate that data and provide a summary of those evaluations so your accreditation board can easily verify if your audience acquired the education you intend them to.
CE certificates should always include the attendee's pertinent information, such as their name, state of licensure and license number. They should also include the event name, date, and time and method of delivery (e.g. virtual, in person, home study, live, etc.). Perhaps most importantly, a CE certificate should include your accreditation board’s approved provider statement, so attendees have a record of their CE credits. Of course it’s important to remember that only verified attendees should be receiving CE certificates, so also make sure to document how you plan to take attendance at your event.
As cumbersome as it can seem, most accreditation boards really want CE providers to succeed! Typically they’ll offer additional resources like handbooks, websites, and slide decks. Co-Sponsors, like CE Learning Systems and CE-Go will have useful toolkits and account managers to help ensure you’re meeting all requirements. Of course this list isn’t exhaustive, but it should give you a good start in thinking about compliance from the perspective of an accreditation board.
