Education plays a key role in the daily operations of both the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) and Tennessee Nurses Association (TNA) as the statewide organizations strive to ensure providers deliver efficient, effective care of the highest quality.

TMA & CME

“We’ve got a lot going on with CME and have really ramped up over the last year,” said Dave Chaney, director of Communications for TMA. In fact, he noted, the organization recently completed a 20-month process through the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to create original CME content.

TMA received provisional accreditation last November. At the end of two years, they will undergo another ACCME review to receive a four-year standard accreditation or six-year accreditation with commendation. This expanded capability is in addition to the organization’s longstanding accreditation to approve other’s CME programming.

Angie Madden, director of Practice Solutions for TMA, explained, “We felt as a medical society that we needed to be more nimble and be able to provide education to physicians in Tennessee and particularly our members.” She added much of TMA’s content focuses on broad issues impacting all physicians but noted specialty-specific breakouts are featured at the annual meeting or in collaboration with other organizations as needed to meet physician needs.

Chaney said, “Physicians have a lot of sources out there where they can get CME. We want all physicians in Tennessee to look to TMA as the authoritative source for education on the most important and timely topics affecting their profession.” He added, “TMA is plugged in on every legislative and regulatory issue. When we combine what’s happening on a macro level and state level with on-the-ground clinical healthcare delivery, we’re in a unique position to deliver CME.”

Chaney noted the organization uses a mix of online and in-person formats to deliver programming and featured more than 21 hours of onsite education at the April annual meeting. He added some programs, such as this summer’s ICD-10 Coding Camps, are presented in a roadshow format with a series of workshops being held at key points across the state.

Madden said the association is continually adding new offerings and is rolling out two new options this month. The first, Tennessee Health Care Innovations Initiative 101 is an overview of new payment models by the state. The second one-hour course, Tennessee Physician Employment Contracting, helps physicians know what to look for when crafting or signing contracts and is presented by TMA’s legal counsel.

For a complete list of options, go online to the Professional Development section of tnmed.org.

TNA & CNE

The staff of the Tennessee Nurses Association is also passionate about ensuring providers are equipped to face the challenges of delivering quality care in an era of reform.

“We are accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as an approver and provider of continuing nursing education,” explained TNA Executive Director Sharon Adkins, MSN RN, who added her organization is the only one in Tennessee that can approve CNE courses.

She continued, “We’ve got a whole committee of reviewers, and they make sure the program meets the ANCC standards for quality of education and objectives and provides the learner with expected outcomes.”

Adkins said the association also collaborates with others to meet needs. Working with the TMA, she noted, “We partnered with them last fall on a diabetes workshop and are currently partnering on the ICD-10 workshops being held across the state.”

In addition, the organization teams up with the Tennessee Association of Student Nurses to provide continuing education at the annual conference each fall. This year’s meeting – Nursing Ethics: Commitment, Compassion, Quality Care – will be held Oct. 23-25 at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs. To register, go to tnaonline.org.

John Ingram Institute for Physician Leadership

In addition to their new course offerings, the TMA recently rebranded the Physician Leadership College as the John Ingram Institute for Physician Leadership, honoring the East Tennessee internist and former president who helped create and launch the program. In its new incarnation, physicians will now have two track options – the Leadership Immersion Weekend Retreat and the nine-month Physician Leadership Lab.

Madden noted the first class graduated from the Physician Leadership College in 2008 with the eighth class graduating this past May at the 2015 annual meeting. While the core leadership topics of negotiation, decision-making, conflict resolution, collaboration and influence, medical advocacy, media and communications, resonated strongly with those who participated, Madden said the nine-month commitment made it difficult or impossible for some physicians to tap into the impactful curriculum.

“What we decided to do was create a weekend emersion where they would get all the training but in an accelerated, more convenient platform,” Madden explained.

To be eligible, an applicant must be a member of the TMA. Madden and Chaney noted the cost is kept low to make the program accessible. “We underwrite 90 percent of the costs through grants,” Madden added.

The next offering of the Leadership Immersion Weekend runs July 23-26 at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville. Those interested in attending or nominating someone to attend should go online to tnmed.org/leadership for details and an application.

The new Physician Leadership Lab, which does span nine months, focuses on team-based care, safety and quality initiatives and includes LifeWings’ Lean plus TeamSTEPPS process improvement tools and programming. Madden pointed to changes tied to value-based reimbursement as an impetus to launch this new leadership offering.

“We wanted to create this new track to address the changing healthcare landscape,” said Madden, adding the goal is “to really help equip and train physicians with the skill set to practice medicine with all these new initiatives.”

Additionally, she noted the Physician Leadership Lab includes a hands-on project for participants. “They will pick a project in their community that they are passionate about and will work to impact outcomes, processes, and safety. They will take skills they have learned in TeamSTEPPS-Lean Healthcare and put them into practice.”

While details were still being fleshed out at press time, the plan is to launch in the fall and run through April with graduation at the 2016 annual meeting. Madden said the program would be a mix of live sessions, webinars and conference calls.

“With team models emerging, physicians need a different type of leadership skills they might not have needed in the past,” said Chaney. “Taking care of patients is number one, but any time you have physicians building skill sets, that’s going to benefit patients.”