In pursuance of aiding the human development pillar of Qatar Vision 2030, the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners will soon launch the nation's very own healthcare framework dedicated to the development of healthcare professionals. Unlike any in the world, The National Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development Framework will continuously upgrade the abilities of Qatar's healthcare practitioners in order to consistently provide patients with the best care possible.
The State of Qatar has emerged along a number of global fronts. Driven by the guidance of His Highness The Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar's progress is based on a well calculated Vision which is advancing the nation by bolstering a series of initiatives. A fundamental aspect of continuing to achieve Qatar's many successes is ensuring that the country has an educated and capable workforce. With the work of the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP), the nation is working tirelessly to see that this is accomplished.
Launching March 2016, The National Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development Framework will include an accreditation system for all healthcare practitioners across the State of Qatar. Qatar's healthcare sector is one of the country's most vital, as developed by the Supreme Council of Health. In a bid to further strengthen healthcare on offer, this innovative framework will unveil a new layer to Qatar's aims for the future.
"The accreditation project, the Accreditation Department, and continuous medical education framework are among the many existing national health strategy projects. These projects are included in Qatar's planning for the future and as such are directly related to the vision of the country's leadership. This vision has been adequately translated into projects and deliverables which have helped us to participate in the reform taking place in the healthcare sector and the medical education of Qatar. This has had a profound effect on the continuous professional development of all health care practitioners," said Dr. Samar Aboulsoud, A/CEO of the QCHP and the Manager of the Department of Accreditation and Health Profession Education.
You can't ensure the competency of anyone without ensuring that this individual is exposed to education and training all the time. Applying this understanding to healthcare professionals is of even greater importance."
Built from the ground up, The National Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development Framework will apply a range of provisions unique to both Qatar and global healthcare. The QCHP has taken enormous strides towards offering a framework which will not only provide patients with care that addresses regional and cultural realities found only in Qatar, but also support the continued development of healthcare practitioners across the country.
Healthcare practitioners will find Qatar's new framework helpful to their respective journeys but also incredibly flexible due to the manner with which its activities are offered. The framework has rejected the idea of enforcing any stringent sense of coursework for Qatar's healthcare community, but is instead allowing its members to create a set of activities which are tailored to their specifications. Workshops on new surgical techniques, training seminars relevant to updated practices for the nursing profession and attendance at medical conferences are all among a range of activities which will be eligible within The National Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development Framework. By strengthening the abilities of healthcare practitioners, the ultimate benefits will be passed on to the patient.
Said Dr. Aboulsoud: "Our number one priority is our patients. We care for our patients and as such we care about the quality of care which they receive. We always monitor the patients' outcomes and the healthcare outcomes within our healthcare system. It has been made abundantly clear that maintaining the presence of competent practitioners is crucial to ensuring the best patient outcomes. In countries across the world, continuous professional development and continuous medical education are implemented. Continuous medical education has historically been designated for physicians, but continuous medical development is truly for everyone and it is more than just education, it is a form of development which includes aspects other than merely sitting in a classroom and gaining knowledge; it is more complex than that."
The framework's accreditation system is not only a tailored approach to continuous medical development but additionally exceptional for its embrace of interprofessional education. Unlike accreditation systems found elsewhere, Qatar's development activities will not be divided between different professions within the medical field, making it unlike any framework in the world. This universal mandate ensures that doctors, dentists, surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists alike will be held to the same expectations.
The accreditation providers will be essential for supplying the activities available as well as the unique offering of interprofessional education. By acting as the staging ground for the framework's activities, the institutions will be instrumental in supporting healthcare practitioners. The delicate balance which is necessary within providing adequate interprofessional development will be reinforced considerably by the accreditation providers participating in the framework's processes.
"At the heart of our system is a concept that we've embraced as both a department and as an accreditation system. This system is 'interprofessional education'. Interprofessional education is an approach to education in healthcare which promotes professionals to learn together interprofessionally. Rather than having a workshop that targets only one form of practitioner, interprofessional education is about providing a session of learning which collectively speaks to everyone at once. Practitioners should always consider the need to address the conflicting prerequisites of their colleagues. We have embraced the need for this consideration with the concept of interprofessional education, yet another distinctive aspect of our new system," said Dr. Aboulsoud.
We are very proud to say that we are the first in the world to put this system in place. The first to have a comprehensive system consisting of a continuous professional development framework and the relevant requirements which apply equally to all practitioners. Our patients are our focus, we want to make sure that we are providing the best care. This is for the wellbeing of the patients."