The Return to Practice Program answers state licensing boards’ and healthcare organizations’ desire for a geographically convenient, effective and cost-efficient education alternative. Healthcare practitioners can use the Return to Practice Program to update their skills and demonstrate competence to licensing, privileging or other administrative bodies.

The Return to Practice Program is an accessible education alternative to costly evaluation processes. Using a peer-to-peer learning approach, the Return to Practice Program:

Allows the healthcare practitioner to guide the educational processes and timelines;

Helps determine the characteristics and skills needed in a mentor;

Provides guiding tools to identify a mentor with appropriate credentials;

Teaches the practitioner and mentor how to proceed through the learning process and assure its efficacy;

Provides tracking and measurement methods that demonstrate the healthcare practitioner’s successful learning process and its actual or hypothetical application to patient care*

Because the Return to Practice Program allows the physician to initiate and complete the education process using local resources, the program is available at a reasonable rate.

Use of the Return to Practice Program allows the practitioner and monitor to focus on the actual learning activities. Its structure guides the pair through the acquisition, integration, and mastery of knowledge that will assure reentry success. Inherent to the process is an objective foundation in which educational needs and new learning are continuously addressed; improvement can be measured through application to hypothetical or actual cases.

Use of a community-based mentor reduces the likelihood of isolation for the returning practitioner. The mentorship component requires that ongoing clinical discussions take place. Mentors also provide the practitioner with opportunities to observe and consider its application to practice.

The Return to Practice Program is beneficial for physicians or healthcare practitioners who:

Seek a return to clinical practice after an extended absence;

Held a current and comprehensive understanding of their specialty at the time of departure from direct care;

Have addressed any health issues that could impact the education process or a return to practice; 

Anticipate practicing within the scope of their residency training and past experience.

Healthcare practitioners interested in this program should speak with their licensing or privileging body prior to initiation of the Return to Practice Program.

(Brochure)

*Depending upon the practitioner’s licensure and/or privileging status, the program allows the practitioner to demonstrate successful application of learning to patient care.