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In the August 2011 Issue
A Recreational Therapy First
CAAHEP Webinars on the Web
Accreditation Actions

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Public Member Resigns

 

Jinny Gender, Public Member Commissioner and Board Member, recently resigned her position as Public Member and CAAHEP Board member citing personal reasons. The Board of Directors wish to thank Jinny for her contributions during her time of service. The Recent Graduate Commissioner, Katie Bowe, will be appointed to the vacated seat and serve until the term ends. In the meantime, CAAHEP will be seeking nominations for another Public Member Commissioner.

 

 

 

Programs are Talking...

 

...and here's what they are saying about CAAHEP accreditation:

 

"Being an accredited program is essential for our program. CAAHEP ensures that the college meets the guidelines required to effectively ensure that students are receiving a proper education to prepare them for the workforce and to become Certified Surgical Technologists. The college and the program value the guidance that is provided by CAAHEP." 

Rebecca Lawson CST, AAS, BA

 Program Director of Surgical Technology

Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College

President's Corner

HughBonner

Hugh Bonner, PhD, FASAHP


On July 1, the new CAAHEP officers and Board of Directors took office.   The new officers include: Cameron Harris, RPSGT as Vice President; Calvin Harris, EdD, (public member) returns as Treasurer; and, Kerry Weinberg, MPA, RDMS, RDCS, RT will be the Secretary. Newly elected Board members include, Bernard "Bernie" Cohen, PhD, DABNM, FASNM; Barry S. Eckert, PhD, FASAHP and Alan P. Marco, MD,MMM, CPE. FACPE. I am honored to follow LaCheeta McPherson, Ph.D., MLT(ASCP) who served an outstanding term as president for the past two years and helped to establish CAAHEP as a leader in specialized allied health education accreditation. As Past President, LaCheeta will remain on the Board and continue to provide her guidance and counsel to me and to the Board as we move into a challenging and changing time for educational accreditation. In these times when the public demands greater transparency of the accreditation process and there is legislative insistence for public accountability, the accreditation community must be able to rapidly address these issues. CAAHEP will be ready.

 

In March I sent a short questionnaire to the Committees on Accreditation (CoAs) asking what CAAHEP does well, what we should do that we are not currently doing, and what we are doing that we should stop doing. I am gratified that we did not get any suggestions of things we should stop doing, and we were given numerous compliments about what we do well. For example, respondents spoke highly of the webinars and continuing education programs offered, and felt that these were an important and effective outreach to the CoAs. They felt that the staff provided positive feedback and were able to provide valuable guidance in interpretation of "grey areas." The Board Liaisons were identified as being very beneficial in providing meaningful feedback and helpful suggestions. The CAAHEP webpage was user friendly and the newsletter, Communiqu�, provides the CoAs with important information. The item most often cited was that the CAAHEP meetings provided an outstanding opportunity for the CoAs to network and exchange ideas and be provided invaluable information.

 

It is interesting that the item most often suggested for CAAHEP to do more of was to provide CoAs with greater communications and cross-fertilization of ideas, and to develop more in-depth electronic exchanges for ideas, procedures, forms and policies among the CoAs. Obviously, networking is an important value added service for CAAHEP to facilitate. We were asked to focus discussions on CAAHEP policies and procedures and to locate these in a special manual or in an electronic file easily accessed. Finally there were suggestions for future webinars dealing with: CHEA/USDOE policies affecting the CoAs; best practices used by CoAs and other specialized accreditors; addressing common concerns such as: consistency, standardized outcome measures; and site visitor training/retraining. While some of these suggestions are currently in place, we will provide these suggestions the highest priority.

 

I look forward to a meaningful year of growth for CAAHEP. I appreciate any feedback, suggestions and counsel that you have to offer. I look forward to an open communication with you over the next year as we move into an eventful year. 

A Recreational Therapy First

 

At its meeting on July 21, 2011, the CAAHEP Board took action to approve the first CAAHEP accredited Recreational Therapy program. Congratulations to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, whose Recreational Therapy Baccalaureate program became the first in this profession to be accredited by CAAHEP.

 

Recreational Therapy became one of the professions in which CAAHEP accredits programs at the Annual Meeting in April 2010, and has been on the fast track ever sense. An Open Hearing on the profession's Standards and Guidelines was conducted in July 2010 and the Standards were approved by the Board in August 2010. Then, 11 months later the Western Carolina University Recreational Therapy program was accredited. 

 

Recreational therapists use a variety of educational, behavioral, and activity-oriented strategies with clients to enhance functional performance and improve positive lifestyle behaviors to increase independence and effective community participation. For information on the Recreational Therapy profession or the newly accredited program, please visit the CAAHEP website.

 

 
CAAHEP Ad Thanks Our Sponsors

 

You may have seen a CAAHEP ad in your sponsor organization's publication in recent months. The ad was produced by CAAHEP to thank our sponsor organizations for partnering with CAAHEP in this imporant work of accreditation.  To date, the ad has been published in the publications of the American College of Sports Medicine, American Society of Cytopathology, American Kinesiotherapy Association, American Association for Thoracic  Surgery, International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners, American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists, National Surgical Assistant Association,  American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring, the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, and the American Association of Medical Assistants.  CAAHEP is truly appreciative of these sponsoring organizations and their support.

 

If you would like information on placing the CAAHEP ad in your professional publication, please contact Kathy Megivern.

 

CAAHEP Webinars Available on the Web

 

There was much discussion at the CAAHEP July Summer Workshop on the topic of CAAHEP webinars, how well the programs that were presented earlier this year were received, and how their format makes it easy for everyone to participate - no matter the location.  If you missed them, or wish to hear them again, the webinars that were presented earlier this year are posted to the CAAHEP website. The programs are Windows Media Video files and are accessible to all visitors to the CAAHEP website and include the following:

 

  • Assessing Student Learning Outcomes with Dr. Susan Hatfield
  • Improving the Quality of Clinical Preceptors: Practical Applications for Bench Teaching
     
    with Dr. Donald Simpson
  • Are You Prepared: Integrating Emergency Preparedness into the Curriculum with
    Dr. Cecilia Rokusek

 

 

Follow this link to the CAAHEP website for access to these programs.  Additional webinar topics are being developed and will be announced soon.  

 

Accreditation Actions

 

The following programs received CAAHEP accreditation at the July 21, 2011, Board of Directors Meeting. There are links directly to each accredited program's website.

 

Diagnostic Medical Sonography
Continuing

Baker College of Owosso, Owosso, MI (General) (Associate)

BryanLGH College of Health Sciences, Lincoln, NE (General) (Associate)

Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX (General) (Associate)

Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX (Cardiac) (Associate)

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (General) (Certificate, Baccalaureate)

University of Arkansas Fort Smith, Ft Smith, AR (General) (Baccalaureate)

University of Wisconsin Hospitals & Clinics, Madison, WI (General) (Certificate, Baccalaureate)

University of Wisconsin Hospitals & Clinics, Madison, WI (Cardiac) (Certificate, Baccalaureate)

University of Wisconsin Hospitals & Clinics, Madison, WI (Vascular) (Certificate, Baccalaureate)

Valencia College, Orlando, FL (General) (Associate)

 

Initial

Delaware Technical and Community College-Owens Campus, Georgetown, DE (General) (Associate)

University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN (Cardiac) (Baccalaureate)

University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN (Vascular) (Baccalaureate)

 

Electroneurodiagnostic Technology

Continuing

McLennan Community College, Waco, TX (Associate)

 

Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic

Continuing

Absolute Safety Training Inc., Chico, CA (Certificate)

Barton County Community College, Great Bend, KS (Associate)

Creighton University, Omaha, NE (Certificate, Associate, Baccalaureate)

Dixie State College of Utah, St. George, UT (Certificate, Associate)

Galveston College, Galveston, TX (Certificate, Associate)

Imperial Valley Community College, Imperial, CA (Certificate, Associate)

Jefferson College of Health Sciences, Roanoke, VA (Associate)

Mercy College of Health Sciences, Des Moines, IA (Certificate, Associate)

 

Exercise Physiology

Continuing

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, East Stroudsburg, PA (Masters)

The University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, LA (Masters)

 

Exercise Science

Continuing

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, East Stroudsburg, PA (Baccalaureate)

North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND (Baccalaureate)

Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA (Baccalaureate)

The University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, LA (Baccalaureate)

Westfield State University, Westfield, MA (Baccalaureate)

 

Initial

University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK (Diploma, Baccalaureate, Masters)

University of Mary, Bismarck, ND (Diploma, Certificate, Baccalaureate, Masters)

 

Medical Assisting

Initial

Living Arts Institute at School of Communication Arts, Winston-Salem, NC (Diploma)

 

Polysomnographic Technology

Initial

Coahoma Community College, Clarksdale, MS (Associate)

 

Recreational Therapy

Initial

Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC (Baccalaureate)

 

Specialist Blood Bank Technology/Transfusion Medicine

Continuing

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD (Certificate)