MAHEC's Department of Continuing Professional Development conducts regional, statewide, and national programs designed to meet the education and training needs of health and human service professionals in allied health, dental health, medicine, mental health, nursing, and pharmacy. Innovation, collaboration, and interprofessional education of the healthcare workforce are emphasized in providing programs and services.
The Simulation Center provides hands-on experiential learning opportunities using task trainers, virtual reality technology, and high-fidelity manikins. Simulation-based education provides a controlled or simulated environment that imitates real-life patient care settings instead of the classroom didactic setting. Simulation training also offers unique and powerful learning opportunities in key competencies, including communication, teamwork, emergent conditions, and tasks that require well-practiced manual skills such as diagnostics and surgical procedures. Medical simulation has important lessons and applications for all involved in the risk-laden environment of healthcare. It provides the ideal environment for teaching healthcare teams how to care for patients. Through simulation, learners can practice and master skills without putting patients at risk. By being allowed to make mistakes, learners can see the effects of those errors without harming patients.
In NC, allied healthcare professionals account for 60% of the health care workforce and are comprised of various disciplines. Allied healthcare professionals work in collaboration with physicians, pharmacists, advanced practice practitioners, dentists and other healthcare professionals. Because of the increased number of people moving to North Carolina and our aging population, demand for allied health professionals is predicted to grow. MAHEC is an approved provider and/or can offer discipline-specific and/or interprofessional CE for athletic trainers, audiologists, dietitians, medical coders/health information technicians, occupational therapists/assistants, physical therapists/assistants, orthotists, prosthetists, radiologic technologists, respiratory care practitioners, speech-language pathologists and many other allied health professionals.
MAHEC provides basic/ required and advanced CE for dental healthcare providers such as BLS, ACLS, Dental OSHA, Dental Medical Emergencies, Intraoral Radiography for Office-trained DAs, Coronal Polishing for the DA II; and specific CE on requested hot topics in dentistry.
The North Carolina Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) are an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry. Concerns or complaints about a continuing education provider may be directed to the provider or to the Commission for Continuing Education Provider Recognition at ADA.org/CERP.
MAHEC is an accredited sponsor of continuing medical education (CME). MAHEC has been accredited by the North Carolina Medical Society to sponsor CME for physicians. Through judicious use of resources, we strive to provide as broad a range of medical specialty credits as possible including AMA/PRA credit and AAFP (American Academy of Family Physicians) credit to the physician constituency reflective of the distribution of medical specialties within the 16-county MAHEC region.
MAHEC offers continuing professional development for behavioral health professionals at all levels. MAHEC is recognized by the North Carolina Psychology Board as an approved provider of Category A continuing education for North Carolina Licensed Psychologists.
MAHEC has been approved by NBCC as an approved continuing education provider, ACEP No. 5514. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. MAHEC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
MAHEC is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the North Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. We provide CNE activities for nurses in WNC to maintain clinical competence. Cutting-edge programming about disease states, best practices, and evidence-based care is offered along with certification review/preparation courses to enhance professional practice. The RN Refresher Program provides a pathway for registered nurses who have been out of nursing practice five or more years to return to the nursing workforce.
The demand for trained pharmacy professionals has increased in past years due to the rapid growth of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, especially for the growing elderly population. The number of pharmacists in healthcare services is also growing, as pharmacists become more actively involved in drug therapy decision-making for patients of all ages. Through its collaboration with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, MAHEC offers ACPE credit for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Traditional continuing education programs are targeted for both retail and hospital pharmacy professionals and are also offered virtually via live web streaming. Continuing education programs are offered periodically, with two-hour weeknight programs, and all-day Sunday programming.