Virtual Courses Should Be Here to Stay

Virtual Courses Should Be Here to Stay

Topics

Education Patient Safety Remedial Education

Their effectiveness and immediacy improve public safety.

Editorial by Stephen Schenthal, MD, MSW, PBI Education founder

Remedial education is on the cusp of a new era. When pandemic-related restrictions made in-person courses impossible, remedial education providers launched virtual programs. We have been delighted by the success of our effort, PBI Education’s Virtual Live Classroom®. These highly interactive courses not only offer distinct advantages over traditional, in-person classrooms, they also radically improve public safety by accelerating remediation.

A Sea Change in Remedial Education

In the past, licensing boards insisted that all remedial courses be conducted in person. They believed, as we all did, that cases of professional misconduct could be adequately addressed only in an in-person setting. The system worked well enough — with one exception. There weren’t always enough courses. Disciplined practitioners often had to wait months for a course to open up. 

Then COVID struck.

Almost overnight, in-person courses became impossible to convene, while the need for competent practitioners soared. Boards continued reviewing complaints and identifying healthcare professionals who needed remedial attention. But there were no longer any in-person courses, and no one knew when they would return.

Rather than allow professionals to go on practicing indefinitely with deficits that compromised patient safety, boards moved quickly to authorize virtual courses. It was the right decision. In fact, it has turned out to be a brilliant decision.

Based on our experience, virtual courses are not merely as good as live courses, they are better in several important ways. Consider these benefits:

Prompt Remediation Improves Public Safety

The logistics involved in mounting a virtual course are minimal compared to an in-person course. That means providers like PBI Education can add courses any time as needed. In the past, we had to establish our schedule months in advance based on anticipated need, and subject to hotel or conference facility availability. Once a particular course filled up, that was it until the next round. But now that all our courses are virtual, we can accommodate unexpected surges in demand by adding courses in a matter of weeks. 

The value of this capability and flexibility cannot be overstated. Until now, boards had to give disciplined practitioners up to a year to complete their remedial education. Course providers simply could not guarantee that appropriate courses would be available sooner. As a result, some practitioners continued practicing for months without remedying the weakness identified during the disciplinary process. This not only put patients at risk, it risked the practitioners’ career, as well as the profession’s reputation. And by driving a wedge between a board order and its implementation, the delay weakened the immediacy of the board’s disciplinary  impact.

To be candid, we did not foresee all these benefits when we started developing our Virtual Live Classroom® (VLC) program a few years ago. As a virtual company — our nationwide faculty and staff confer regularly by phone, email, and virtual meetings — we were predisposed towards virtual education. And we wanted to be able to offer the option to anyone who might have trouble making it to an in-person course. PBI Education attendees were already used to accessing pre-course materials and submitting pre-course assignments online through our integrated Course Portal. And PBI Education graduates have been continuing their remedial education via teleconferencing for years through our weekly Maintenance and Accountability Seminars. So going virtual was, in many ways, a logical next step for us.

But now that we have experienced all the advantages of virtual education, we are committed to continuing our VLC program. From now on, all PBI Education courses — Professional Boundaries, Civility and Communication, Ethics and Professionalism, Prescribing, Medical Records, and Laws and Rules — will be offered virtually.

It’s Time to Demand More

We are not going back to business-as-usual, even after the pandemic abates. We hope others will also realize and take advantage of all the benefits virtual education offers. In the short- to medium-term, COVID is likely to continue making in-person courses unsafe and impractical. But even after herd immunity or an effective vaccine changes that, we urge boards to establish virtual courses as the new gold standard for remedial education.

VIRTUAL COURSES:

• Improve public safety
• Ensure prompt remediation
• Enhance interactive participation
• Build trust quickly
• Encourage personal attention

Most importantly, we hope boards will quickly rethink the prolonged timeframe of their remedial education orders. There is no longer any reason for disciplined practitioners to wait months or even a year to remediate their professional deficits. They owe it to themselves and the safety of their patients to complete needed coursework within 30 to 60 days. Boards should demand no less.