Virtual accreditation visits for pharmacy programs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic: Team members' perspective.

PURPOSE: This wisdom of experience commentary, from peer academic reviewers serving on accreditation teams, will discuss benefits and challenges of international and national virtual accreditation visits (VAVs) using a "What? So What? Now What?" reflective model. DESCRIPTION: Onsite accreditation reviews for health professional education programs require investments in time, effort, and money to maintain program alignment with accreditation standards and continuously generate quality practitioners. When COVID-19 entered the accreditation world, reviewers had to pivot modalities to a VAV format. ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION: Adaptation and expectations of VAVs present several challenges. Barriers and advantages will be discussed as well as implications for the future. While medical and pharmacy education standardization has long been established, the authors propose national and international accrediting bodies will utilize the ingenuity of emergency COVID-19-driven onsite accreditation alternatives to develop protocols for novel accreditation methodology. CONCLUSIONS: Whether the continued mutation of COVID-19 prevents the return to previous accreditation visits or not, the experiences gained from the emergency-driven VAV, can inform and enrich accrediting bodies knowledge, theories, and practices of future VAVs. IMPLICATIONS: Higher-education institutions, accreditation bodies, and government entities will use experiences during COVID-19 to transform and improve academic requirements and future practices. Even if there is a full return to onsite reviews, such guidelines or improved versions of them can be applied to situations where immobility or restricted mobility is an issue, such as in illness, pregnancy, travel, war, etc. It is crucial for educators and accrediting bodies to evolve as we navigate these unprecedented times.

Medicine, Machines, and Medical Education.

While advances in science and technology continue to be at the forefront of the evolution of medical practice, the 21st century is also undergoing a unique and profound cultural shift that is changing the very nature of what it means to be a medical professional, namely humankind's transition to an information-based internet society. Medical care will increasingly depend on computer-generated probabilities guided and supported by a growing variety of individuals in health care-related professions, including statisticians, technologists, and information managers. Perhaps the biggest challenge to the profession will come from the erosion of professional autonomy, driven by smart machines, social networks, and internet search engines. As a result of these and other changes, physicians are facing a systematic loss of control, often without the direct input and leadership of the profession itself. In this commentary, the author urges the profession to adopt several strategies, including shifting its focus from reimbursement to the care patients value most, meaningfully addressing critical issues in health policy, becoming the definitive source for publicly available medical information, reimagining medical education, and overhauling the existing accreditation and licensing systems. Medical education must go beyond a focus on physicians whose professional identity revolves around being the exclusive source of medical knowledge. In the digitized 21st century, medical education should emphasize the centrality of the humanistic interface with patients such that the doctor-patient relationship is paramount in the complex medical world of machines and social media. Removing the roadblocks to successful professional reform is no small task, but the process can begin with a grassroots movement that empowers physicians and facilitates organizational and behavioral change. Failure to take action may well hasten the diminishment of patient care and the profession's trusted role in society.

The Magnet® Site Visit: Going Virtual in Response to COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been a source of disruption, unexpected illness, stress, and adversity for people, worldwide. As the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in early 2020, many healthcare organizations found themselves in the midst of their Magnet appraisals-just short of the 3rd appraisal phase, the Site Visit Phase. In response, the Magnet Recognition Program devised strategies to maintain the integrity of the appraisal process, despite the turbulence associated with the unexpected changes that healthcare organizations were confronting while contending with the impact of COVID-19. In this month's Magnet Perspectives column, we explore how the virtual site visit has provided healthcare organizations with the opportunity to complete this phase of their appraisal process while addressing the safety and well-being of the organization's staff as well as that of the Magnet appraisers.