Kathy Chappell (ANCC); Karen Drenkard (ANCC); Kate Regnier (ACCME); Murray Kopelow (ACCME); Dimitra Travlos (ACPE); Peter Vlasses (ACPE)

Professional health care practice requires the integration of research, education, administration and clinical care. The national continuing education accrediting bodies of three professions have collaborated in these elements to develop the first joint inter-professional continuing education accreditation process. The project is an example of innovation in both inter-professional education as well as interprofessional practice.

After a decade in development, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) are jointly accrediting institutions and organizations that provide continuing education ‘for the team by the team’ within their previously accredited continuing education programs. Since implementation in 2009, five organizations have been awarded Joint Accreditation.

This collaborative project is a demonstration of the inter-professional “performance in practice” competencies by the three accrediting bodies. ACPE, ANCC and ACCME incorporated the interprofessional competencies of values/ethics, roles and responsibilities, inter-professional communications, and teams and teamwork to create an innovative health care education accreditation. This required creating a unified, streamlined joint application process and developing joint accreditation criteria for both the provider of inter-professional education as well as inter-professional standards for individual education activities.

The presentation will include a brief overview of the collaborative journey to develop this innovative accreditation, examples of inter-professional education activities, and video and live testimonials from participants.