The National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment (NCICLE) recently announced the release of the 2021 Pathways to Excellence: Expectations for an Optimal Interprofessional Clinical Learning Environment to Achieve Safe and High-Quality Patient Care. This document promotes discussions and develops action plans within clinical learning environments (CLEs) and assists health care professionals in discussions with executive leaders of CLEs to design infrastructure and processes that optimize learning and patient care. The document frames each pathway from the health system’s perspective, acknowledging the value of interprofessional collaborations and emphasizing the importance of the interface between learners and the health care settings that serve as CLEs. The document is also intended to promote national conversations among educators, preceptors, health care leadership, policy-makers, and patients on the importance of continually assessing and improving environments where the health care workforce trains and to reinforce the mutual roles of learners and those educating them in promoting high-quality team-based care.

The initial Pathways to Excellence document was published in 2014 by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACGME) as guidance for CLEs undergoing reaccreditation under the new Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) program, an assessment that focuses on evaluating the quality of clinical practice and patient safety provided at its graduate medical education clinical practice sites. Feedback gathered during the development and early implementation of the CLER program highlighted the need for discussion regarding the definition and characteristics of an optimal CLE and the importance of input from all of the professions working in the shared environment of clinical practice. The organizations providing input into the CLER program partnered with ACGME to form NCICLE, providing an ongoing forum for organizations committed to improving educational experiences and patient care outcomes within CLEs through shared learning and collaboration. In addition to periodic updates of the Pathways to Excellence document, NCICLE’s goals are as follows:

• Encourage a national discussion to advance the quality of educational outcomes and patient care within CLEs
• Increase educational opportunities among organizations that are focused on improving the quality of learning and delivery of patient care
• Promote interprofessional conversations across organizations on innovative strategies for enhancing educational experiences and improved patient care
• Seek new, generalizable knowledge on successful strategies for enhancing educational experiences and improving patient care within CLEs
• Develop and disseminate common definitions, guiding principles, and best practices in support of improving learning within clinical environments

NCICLE currently has 39 member organizations representing medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and social work, as well as professional accrediting bodies, the Joint Commission, and national health care organizations such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Institute for Safe Medication Practices, American Red Cross, and Veterans Health Administration. ACCP joined NCICLE as a member organization in April 2021 to promote the role of clinical pharmacists as interprofessional educators in CLEs and continue the expansion of the College’s interprofessional collaborations.

NCICLE is encouraging its member organizations to disseminate the new Pathways to Excellence document to their members. ACCP members are encouraged to share the link with their colleagues and use the document to assess their own practice sites and generate new ideas for improvement. ACCP members may also be interested in NCICLE’s other resources, The Role of the Clinical Learning Environment in Preparing New Clinicians to Engage in Patient Safety and The Role of Clinical Learning Environments in Preparing New Clinicians to Engage in Quality Improvement Efforts to Eliminate Health Care Disparities, which can be found on NCICLE’s website at https://ncicle.org.