This program, designed to help the new practitioner advance his/her career as a clinician, will help participants establish credible interprofessional and patient-centered roles, extend their clinical practices through mentoring and precepting, and employ practical strategies to enhance professional standing and recognition. Elective opportunities allow participants to explore several related goals including leadership development, consulting, precepting students and trainees in selected practice settings, and developing a business practice plan.

New clinical practitioners with residency training (or equivalent experience) who practice in any professional setting will benefit from this program. It is anticipated that most participants will be involved in, or planning to pursue, preceptorship of students and/or residents.

Textbooks

(Title available from the ACCP Bookstore at http://www.accp.com/bookstore/practiceDevelopment.aspx)

Required

• How Doctors Think. Jerome Groopman. Mariner Books, 2008. Member Price $11.95

Course Work

Prerequisite Module: Clinical Practice Primer

Outcomes

1. Developing a personal strategic plan for your advancement as a clinician
2. Establishing your role in team and collaborative patient care environments
3. Planning to demonstrate the value of your clinical activities
4. Facilitating your own professional development

Participants will be asked to complete a pre-assignment, which includes gathering documents from his or her institution and uploading to the Academy’s online portfolio system.

Required Module No. 1: Extending Your Practice by Mentoring and Precepting

Outcomes

1. Discuss responsibilities and rewards for mentoring pharmacy students, residents, and other health care professionals in practice training.
2. Describe characteristics of exemplary preceptors and experiential learning environments in preparation for developing a pharmacy practice experience.
3. Identify effective learning activities specific to your clinical service that would reinforce responsible clinical practice roles.
4. Foster interprofessional team work in patient care activities and develop activities that enhance these relationships.
5. Identify successful approaches to balancing delegation and supervision of health care professional trainees on clinical rotations.
6. Identify strategies to instill professionalism in student’s and resident’s interactions with patients and other health care practitioners.
7. Identify mentor qualities and strategies to successfully establish a personal mentor.
8. Identify ways to deal with difficult students and residents in challenging learning environments.

Required Module No. 2: Establishing Interprofessional and Patient-Centered Roles

Outcomes

1. List key stakeholders with an impact on your patient care roles.
2. Communicate effectively with organizational leaders (e.g., Chief of Staff, Chair of Pharmacy, and Therapeutics committee members; key specialists).
3. Establish a rapport with other health care providers.
4. Present arguments persuasively.
5. Earn credibility through your clinical expertise and professional service.
6. Communicate effectively and empathetically with patients.
7. Establish rapport with patients and caregivers.
8. Serve as a patient advocate.
9. Integrate cultural competence in daily practice and interactions.

Required Module No. 3: Clinical Career Advancement

Outcomes

1. Revise your personal strategic plan for career advancement strategically and systematically.
2. Identify key elements of winning presentations to diverse audiences.
3. Implement strategies for effective scholarship and publication.
4. Identify ways to network and collaborate with other clinicians in your specialty or subspecialty.
5. Discuss the benefits of active participation in professional societies.
6. Achieve recognition within your specialty or subspecialty.
7. Identify strategies to establish a mentoring relationship that facilitates career advancement.

The purpose of the elective modules is to allow participants to address specific practice advancement issues and challenges, and to apply them to their own environment. Examples are: Clinical Career Advancement: So You Want to Be a Consultant?; Establishing Clinical Credibility: Making Friends and Winning Over Enemies; Developing a Business Practice Plan; Establishing a Collaborative Clinical Practice Agreement. The Clinical Practice Advancement Certificate Program requires completion of 10 hours of elective modules.

Participants are required to develop and maintain an online electronic portfolio via the online system developed and maintained by ACCP. Completion of assigned activities will be required after each of the required modules. Assignments must be completed prior to taking modules at the next meeting. Advancement in and achievement of prespecified professional goals should be evident at program completion. The electronic portfolio will serve as the guiding and monitoring tool for professional advancement over the course of the certificate program.

2009–2011 Curricular Schedules

Clinical Practice Advancement program participants must attend the Clinical Practice Primer prior to receiving Academy credit for any other required modules. Modules 1, 2, and 3, may be taken in any order following this prerequisite requirement.

The Academy Program Application form can be downloaded as a PDF file by clicking here. Other than the regular meeting registration fees for the ACCP spring/fall meetings or selected premeeting symposia, there are no added costs for obtaining the program's required or elective modules. A one-time application fee of $150 (to offset expenses for online portfolio maintenance) will be charged upon enrollment in the certificate program. Questions? Visit the FAQs page or contact Amy Gaier.

To download the clinical practice advancement application, click here.