The American College of Emergency Physicians CME program seeks to provide its membership and other healthcare professionals with education that is vital to the quality and patient safety of the emergency patients for whom they provide emergency care. ACEP’s CME Program, therefore, goes beyond the traditional administrative and accrediting functions of medical education, and challenges itself to become a catalyst, advocate for, and a provider of education that promotes change, development and improvement.
Therefore, the purpose of the program is to provide high-quality, evidence-based educational opportunities that are designed to advance emergency personnel competence, enhance practice performance, promote patient safety, and improve patient outcomes.
Each CME activity provided by the College has an intended outcome as indicated in the early planning process. The CME Program seeks to improve one or more of the following outcomes of education as indicated below:
- For Improvement in Competence—The College measures the learner’s ability to apply knowledge learned through practice strategies using case studies and other measurements at the conclusion of the activity.
- For Improvement in Performance—The College measures the learner’s ability to apply learning goals in practice as determined by follow-up questionnaires administered 2-4 months post-activity and hands-on procedure labs used to demonstrate skills.
- For Improvement in Patient Outcomes—The College asks learners to report observations of patient outcomes related to key learning objectives when performance improvement questions are asked (2-4 months post-activity).
The results of educational outcomes measurements are analyzed by both staff and members of the Education Committee, and improvements to the program that are indicated are designed and executed on an ongoing basis.
