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Caring in A Time of Crisis – How APCA is Working to Serve our Community During the Pandemic
Guest Blogger: Catherine Zamarin-Gedney, Global Brand Manager, Alliance for Physician Certification and Advancement (APCA) -
During these unprecedented times, we realize our community of physicians is on the frontlines of caring for others. We want you to know what APCA has already done and will do to help support our Certificants. Over the last several months, we developed new initiatives, made modifications, and provided tools that are intended to ease some of the burden our current and potential Certificants may be experiencing.
The following is a compilation of resources and actions APCA has taken:
During these unprecedented times, we realize our community of physicians is on the frontlines of caring for others. We want you to know what APCA has already done and will do to help support our Certificants. Over the last several months, we developed new initiatives, made modifications, and provided tools that are intended to ease some of the burden our current and potential Certificants may be experiencing.
- Extended Application Dates: Times like this call for greater flexibility, so we have extended application dates for many of our examinations, including the Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology™ (CBNC™) examination.
- Information Page: Our team developed the APCA COVID-19 page, which provides updates on application processing, test center details, meetings and events, and other valuable resources such as guidance from the CDC, WHO and Johns Hopkins.
- Priority Scheduling: We worked with Pearson Vue, our testing centers, and are identified as delivering critical support in COVID-19 patient care. This means when our applicants go to schedule an examination, they are given priority because our certifications are considered essential during this time.
- Delayed CME Audit: To further support Certificants, we delayed the CME Audit by one month. It is worth noting that changes to your CME period dates are directly tied to the CME Audit and will be delayed as well. The submission time was also extended from our typical 6 weeks to 3.5 months – an extension of 2 months.
- Mental Health Resources: The well-being of our healthcare professionals is critically important to us. At APCA we want to help by providing mental health resources to read, listen and watch. We recently provided a free CME opportunity to our community through the webinar Leading Your Institution, Your Colleagues, and Yourself Through Stressful Times, the recording is now on our website. Look for additional resources coming soon – including new podcasts from APCA and our companion councils.