Planning an activity?

Before you submit your questionnaire, consider what outcome you are trying to achieve with this education and how you plan to measure if the education was effective in creating the desired change. Learn more about different outcome levels.

The CE planning process begins identifying the current practice (what is), the best practice (what it should be) and the resulting gap (practice-based problem to be addressed by this activity). Certified continuing education must come from a need and be designed to improve skills/strategies, performance and or patient outcomes. We will ask for you to describe why this activity is needed. Sources could include, but are not limited to:

• Requests from stakeholders or the target audience
• Advice from authorities in the field or relevant medical societies such as changes in evidence-based practice, updated disease or treatment guidelines, and/or regulatory changes
• Quality data/Dashboard metrics/HCAHPS reports/Other key performance metrics
• County health statistics
• Discussion in departmental meetings
• Data from peer-reviewed journals, government sources, consensus reports
• Legislative, regulatory or organizational changes that affect patient care
• Joint Commission/Patient Safety Goals/Competencies

Resources:

Gap Analysis Worksheet
Gap Analysis Worksheet - Example

A learning objective is a statement that tells the learners what they are going to do differently in their practice once they leave the education.

How do you write a learning objective?

For the purpose of certified continuing education activities, write learning objectives that:

• Are actionable (tell the learners what they are going to do differently in their practice)
• Align with their outcomes
• Is tied into the change you want to see the learner make with the interprofessional healthcare team

It is required that there is representation from each profession included in the target audience included on the planning committee, regardless of whether credit for that profession be provided. For example, if you are targeting Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants, you will need to have input from each of those professions. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways including, but not limited to:

• Adding them as part of your planning team
• Searching the literature and incorporating the needs of each targeted profession into the curriculum design (this must be documented in the planning process)

Partnering with patients and family members has been shown in the literature to improve the way we deliver care and improve the quality of education. Dignity Health is on a mission to incorporate patients and family members in quality improvement projects and as planners and faculty in certified continuing education. We ask that you consider adding a Patient Family Partner (PFP) to your planning team. If you need assistance in recruiting a PFP, please coordinate with your CPD team member during your first meeting.

Your curriculum must be evidenced-based. Five (5) evidenced-based resources that have been published in the last five years are required to be submitted during the planning process to support your educational activity. If you need assistance, please contact the Northern California Medical Library. You can submit your request using the Ask the Librarian form (which can be found on the Library website).

Learn about active learning strategies, tools and more.

There are several State of California Laws governing content that is eligible, ineligible and mandatory in the development and delivery of certified continuing education.

Continuing education must meet the following criteria:

• Have a scientific or clinical content with a direct bearing on the quality or cost-effective provision of patient care, community or public health or preventative medicine
• Concern quality assurance or improvement, risk management, health facility standards, or the legal aspects of clinical medicine
• Concern bioethics or professional ethics
• Designed to improve the physician/patient relationship

Educational activities that are not directed towards the practice of medicine or are directed toward the business aspects of medical practice, including, but not limited to medical office management, billing and marketing are not eligible for continuing education credit.

Cultural and Linguistic Competency and Implicit Bias

California law, including AB-1196, AB-496 and AB-241, require that all curriculum that is certified for continuing education address health disparities, social determinants of health, cultural and linguistics issues, implications for the LGBTQ+ communities and implicit biases impacting care into the design and delivery. Learn more about incorporating these requirements into your educations.

Please note that AB 241 requires the Board of Registered Nursing to adopt regulations requiring all continuing education courses for its licensees to contain curriculum that includes specific instruction in the understanding of implicit bias in treatment.

The NCD Medical Library can assist you with cultural and linguistics competency and implicit bias research. Submit a request using the Ask the Librarian form (found on the Library website).

BRN Course Requirements

• The program or course content must be relevant to both the educational needs of the registered nurse and health needs of the consumer. The content must be current and designed to include recent developments in the subject area being taught.
• Course offerings must be at least one hour in length. If it is an academic course, the nurse must be enrolled for credit. The nurse must meet all class requirements.
• Credit for completing part of a course (continuing education or academic) may NOT be granted. Thus if a person attending the course leaves before the course is over, they are not to be issued a certificate of completion. Some CEPs who offer multiple day courses often break the course into several segments and provide contact hours for each segment successfully completed.

BRN Course Objectives

• Course objectives describe measurable behaviors or outcomes the student will demonstrate or achieve upon completion. An example of a student' s behavioral objective or outcome is as follows: "Upon completion of this program, the nurse will be able to: a. Describe the latest treatment options used for patients with_____, b. Assess a patient for the three most common objective or subjective symptoms of _____, c. Evaluate the patient's response to treatment of _____, etc."
• Instructors' goals are not acceptable behavioral objectives or outcomes. For example:"To inform the student about the latest advances in the treatment of patients with _____" is a goal of the instructor, not an instructional objective.
• Providers are required to clearly state the overall course objectives or have a clear, concise course description in brochures and other advertisements so participants will know in advance what they can expect to learn.

BRN Instructor Requirements

• Registered nurse instructors need to have a current valid license, be free from any disciplinary action by the Board, and be knowledgeable, current and skillful in the subject matter as demonstrated by a baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited college or university and validated experience in the subject matter, or experience in teaching similar subject material within the past two years, or at least one year's experience within the last two years in the specialized area in which they are teaching.
• Non-nurse instructors must be currently licensed or certified in the area of expertise if appropriate and show evidence of specialized training in the subject area and have at least one year's experience within the past two years in the practice of teaching of the specialized area to be taught.
• Further information about instructor qualifications can be found in Title 16, CCR, Section 1457.

BRN Course Evaluations

Instructors can determine how or if they want to determine whether registered nurses understand the content of the class or seminar they attended. Home study courses should have some method of verifying that the course was read.

As part of the evaluation process, it is recommended that all courses are evaluated for at least the following:

• The extent to which the course met the objectives.
• The applicability or usability of new information.
• The adequacy of the instructor's mastery of the subject.
• The appropriateness of teaching methods used.
• Efficiency of the course mechanics (room, space, lighting, acoustics, audiovisuals, handouts, etc.)
• Other comments

BRN Advertising Requirements

Information used by CEPs to advertise continuing education courses must include the information noted in Title 16, CCR, Section 1459:

• The full statement "Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number _____, for _____ contact hours" must be included in all advertisements.
• Provider's policy regarding refunds (including time lines) for nonattendance by the registrant.
• A clear, concise description of the course content, objectives, or both, is required.
• Provider name stated as officially on file with the BRN.

Please reach out to northerncaliforniacpd@dignityhealth.org to request a copy of a marketing template you can use to advertise your educational activity.

Sign in Sheets

• Please download and utilize the CPD sign in sheet for your activities. You must collect all of the names and license numbers of the RNs taking the course on your sign in sheet.
• Once completed, sign in sheets must be forwarded to the location You must collect the Name and License number of the RN taking the course on your sign in sheet.
• Sign in sheets must be forwarded to the agreed upon location discussed during the planning process.