The Challenge Facing Health Care

In the 1960s, schools emphasized courses in the basic sciences and memorization of facts. Often, students would be required to complete multiple choice questions following the second and fourth year of school to ensure they had mastered the material. Although the knowledge gained was of great importance and continues to be critical today, the problem was that the information did not, and still does not, always transfer to the real world. This gap left some health care professionals unprepared in many ways to handle the needs of their patients once they graduated. Today, continuing education courses, such as the free CPE activities, now realize this lack of real-world experience and are transforming the way information is delivered for better outcomes.

The Future of Medical and Pharmacy Education

In addition to learning the necessary information about the human body and its systems, health care professionals must acquire other critical skills as part of their training. For example, anyone entering the health care field will need to work with others to provide the optimal level of care, thus an emphasis needs to be placed on team leadership. Health care costs continue to rise, suggesting continuing education courses need to emphasize being a good steward of resources and the focus needs to move from the health of an individual to improving the health of the overall population. Furthermore, as technology continues to increase in importance in the medical industry, all health care professionals must have a better understanding of telehealth platforms, big data, and electronic health records, among other technological advancements.

Chronic Health Conditions

One problem many health care professionals encounter is patients building a tolerance to certain medications over time when dealing with chronic health conditions. In addition, certain ailments demand multiple medications be taken, and this factor can be an issue. All health care professionals working with patients need to be aware of the medications being used and their interactions, among other care concerns. Furthermore, an awareness of new therapies and medications is critical to dealing with issues of this type, as a new treatment may be exactly what the patient needs to witness a better quality of life. For this reason, pharmacists must have access to continuing education that allows them to participate fully in a patient's health care team and contribute to their overall treatment plan.

Pharmaceutical Challenges

Today, pharmacists deal with many challenges including those not seen in previous generations. The rise of counterfeit drugs should be a concern to all in the medical field. Likewise, medication errors continue to be an issue. A simple error in the dosage of a medication can be fatal, yet problems such as this occur every day. In addition, drug abuse is an issue that must be addressed by those in the pharmaceutical industry, as a pharmacist may be the first person to notice a patient that regularly attempts to fill prescriptions for pain medications from various doctors. These issues are only a few that may be addressed through free CPE activities, and there are numerous others. For example, online pharmacies, especially those based in other countries, continue to entice many individuals looking to save on their health care costs. What does this mean for pharmacists and how will this problem be addressed? Everyone working in pharmaceutical industry must be aware of these and other issues to ensure they are delivering the best care possible.

Why Continuing Education?

Every health care professional needs to take part in continuing education, as it provides a time to reflect on life, both on a personal and professional level. Individuals, when doing so, find they can identify areas where they may be lacking and plan a way to achieve the desired level of competence in these areas. The free CPE activities make it easy to do so, and the variety of formats ensures that everyone can take part in a manner that is convenient for them.

The managed care setting provides a unique opportunity for pharmacists and pharmacy directors. All CPE contact hours or continuing education credits are designed to provide engaging and meaningful knowledge- and application-based activities that will benefit those in need of these credits. Furthermore, they are provided free of charge and cover a wide range of timely, important topics. Choose from on-demand, live, and print-based activities, as all deliver the tools and resources needed to improve pharmacy practices. Look into the free CPE classes offered through Impact Education, LLC, today, as one or more are sure to fit your needs.

Read Less