Continuing Education - National Commission on Correctional Health Care
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Continuing Education

Standard C-03 requires that qualified health care professionals participate annually in continuing education appropriate for their positions. Full-time qualified health care professionals need to obtain 12 hours of continuing education per year, and those who have patient contact must be current in cardiopulmonary resuscitation technique. Continuing education may be obtained in a variety of ways, such as staff development experiences, instruction given on-site by a member of the health staff or by guest lecturers and attendance at programs offered in the community. Attendance at a CPR training course is considered continuing education and may be counted toward the 12 hours that are required annually.

— From CorrectCare Volume 30, Issue 3, Summer 2016

In the 2008 version of the NCCHC standards, J-C-03 Professional Development requires that all qualified health care professionals who have patient contact are current in cardiopulmonary resuscitation technique. The standard states that the CPR training may be provided by an approved body, such as the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross, or from an individual who possesses a current instructor’s certificate from an approved body. Therefore, your physician’s online course would be acceptable to meet the standard if it is provided by an approved body.

— From CorrectCare Volume 22, Issue 2, Spring 2008

The relevant standard is C-03 Continuing Education for Qualified Health Care Professionals. Its intent is the same for jails, prisons and juvenile settings: “the facility’s qualified health care professionals are kept current in clinical knowledge and skills.” The standard allows for a variety of approaches and methods to meet the intent.

The use of a few computer-based offerings such as you describe may be appropriate. However (omitting discussion of the hands-on training noted above), if you used the PowerPoint method only with no face-to-face meetings, compliance may be questioned. You want to ensure that the presenter and participants have opportunities to interact, at least some of the time. The exchange of questions and answers and the sharing of experiences often are the most valuable parts of any training. NCCHC’s Accreditation Committee would make the compliance decision based on findings from the on-site survey.

As a side note, staff can earn continuing education credit by providing documentation of external educational activities, including health classes, seminars and conferences such as those sponsored by NCCHC.

— From CorrectCare Volume 19, Issue 1, Winter 2005