There has been lots of activity over the past few months. It was possible because of the contributions of inspired, dedicated, amazing and collegial member volunteers. The Consortium’s successes are directly attributable to your invaluable gifts of time and effort. Heartfelt thanks to each of you!
So, what have we been up to? We’ve created and rolled out our logo, built out the site visitor process, increased the functionality of our website and our presence in social media, established a national Membership Committee, and established a national presence as a accrediting organization.
New logo: In the spring we shared our experiences in working with Jerry Kuyper, an internationally recognized consultant on creating brand identities. Now, the NNPRFTC logo, seen at the top of this posting, has been rolled out and we are in the final steps of trademark registration. When Jerry shared our logo with a couple of his international clients, they all immediately grasped our focus on high quality, compassionate healthcare. A version of the logo will serve as the official credential awarded to programs who successfully complete the accreditation process.
Status of Accreditation Review: There are now 4 programs under review; with 2 site visits scheduled, 1 pending, and 1 likely in the Spring. Unofficially, we have heard that approximately 6 programs expect to be submitting their applications in 2017. The pipeline is established and growing! Responding to program feedback, we are in the process of creating a fillable PDF for the Self Study Report.
We have built out our site visit process. We’ve established policies and procedures for recruiting and selecting site visitors. We have created an initial curriculum for training new and experienced site visitors. We will soon be recruiting for potential site visitors – watch for updates. We have a template for site visit agendas and are finalizing a fillable PDF form for site visit reports. We conducted a half-day workshop focusing on establishing rubrics (decision-making guidelines) to use in determining compliance with our Standards.
Membership Committee: The Board’s Membership Committee has moved forward in recruiting representation from a diverse group of national leaders. Over this coming year, the committee will be working on creating a dynamic and responsive suite of member services and benefits.
Website functionality: Our website has more content and functionality.
Security and Privacy are top concerns for accreditation applicants. Applications are submitted on line under the Application tab in the upper right hand corner of the home page using Docu-Sign. Confidential Self Study Reports are uploaded and shared with site visitors through Box.com using carefully controlled access rites. In the future, we anticipate moving to electronic payment as well. We have implemented the NNPRFTC privacy policy, which is now posted on the website (lower right hand corner of each page).
Accreditation Status updates are now available online, under the Accreditation Status tab in the upper right corner of the Home page.
Updated Map of Residencies (accurate as of July 17, 2016) is now available under the Postgraduate Training tab. We intend to add links to each residency in the near future and will update the map at that time.
Updated References, under the Education and Knowledge tab, have been posted, with the most recent articles published in August 2016. We’ve already begun compiling additional references to be posted in the coming weeks. When you run across a citation (yours or someone else’s) that would be useful to our community, do let us know at [email protected].
Blog and News Updates are posted regularly. We’ve moved to MailChimp as a delivery mechanism for the postings to allow easier subscribe/unsubscribe options and better management of our delivery process. The recent blog series has focused on the Accreditation Standards. We will be exploring the Self Study process and preparing for Site Visits next. And there are occasional musings on topics that I can’t resist!
Social Media presence is evolving. If you had a chance to read Aldon Hynes’ blog “An invitation to Digital Introverts”, those of you who are late to the social media world, and identify as digital introverts and/or digital immigrants, will understand my steep learning curve in entering the world of social media. However, it is happening! We now have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. In the coming months we’ll be increasing our presence in that sphere.
National presence: Members of the Board and I are being invited as speakers at a variety of venues. NNPRFTC joined with the Weitzman Center in their exhibit booth at the AANP and NACHC annual meetings. I attended the Fall meeting of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors and had a wonderful opportunity to network with leaders in accreditation from across the professions. Hearing the presentations and interacting with other accrediting groups provided a strong affirmation that NNPRFTC is consistently implementing best practices, and actually on the cutting edge in some areas.
The NNPRFTC representatives were invited speakers for the CHC, Inc’s National Cooperative Agreement webinar series and their current Learning Collaborative.
Finally, I’ll be speaking on accreditation issues at APGAP’s October workshop in Charlotte NC, October 27.
That’s it for now. It’s time to get back to work!
I’ve decided to adopt Mark Masselli’s email closing — Peace and Health to all.
Until next time,
Candice
