Education & Training for Health Care Professionals

Health Care Transition Curricula

Continuing Education for Florida Practitioners

Health Care Transition Training for Health Care Professionals aims to provide practitioners with an in-depth understanding of the importance of health care transition. It will equip all practice staff with the knowledge and tools they need to facilitate smooth transition from pediatric to adult health care for young Floridians with and without disabilities or special health care needs (see flyer).

The course was updated in 2017 and includes evidence-based materials such as Got Transition’s Six Core Elements 2.0, Coding and Reimbursement Tip Sheet, and condition-specific tools for subspecialists from the American College of Physicians. Participants will learn about developmental, legal, financial and social considerations in planning for transition, using interactive tools and a Florida-specific planning algorithm to connect to local services and resources.

Up to 4 free continuing education contact hours for Florida physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, mental health counselors and allied health professionals are available through the Florida AHEC Network. Practitioners outside Florida can take the course through Florida AHEC Network, and then submit a certificate of completion to their own state accrediting agency. Most state boards honor approved AMA PRI Category 1 credits. Get started by visiting www.aheceducation.com.

Course Modules

The course is comprised of 10 sequential modules, each lasting approximately 15 minutes, that are also available for viewing here. Please note that CME/CE contact hours are available ONLY by enrolling at www.aheceducation.com.  A short description of the module and learning objectives are provided with the video links below. Before starting, please download the Course Toolkit, which provides links to the tools and resources used throughout the course.

1. Introduction  (Handout)
2. Adolescent Development  (Handout)
3. Working with Caregivers   (Handout)
4. Assessing Transition Readiness  (Handout)
5. Patient Skill Development  (Handout)
6. Legal & Financial Aspects  (Handout)
7. Insurance  (Handout)  ** Please see clarification for Module 7 here
8. Working with Adult Medicine  (Handout)
9. Care Transfer  (Handout)
10. Conclusion  (Handout)

For an overview of the training program, see Health Care Transition Training for Health Care Professionals: A Web-Based Curriculum for Practitioners, which was presented at the  Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs Conference on February 10, 2018, in  Washington, D.C.

Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Physicians

• FREE MOC! The University of California San Diego/Rady Children’s Hospital with the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) partnered with Got Transition to develop a new pediatric Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part 4 Module on transition. The web-based activity – “Transitioning Youth from Pediatric to Adult-Centered Care – will evaluate adequacy of participant documentation of patients’ transition from pediatric to adult centered care within the 6 Core Element framework developed by Got Transition: Center for Health Care Transition Improvement. Eligible participants include clinicians who actively evaluate pediatric patients with chronic diseases on a frequent enough basis to report data on 30 patient visits over a year period. This activity will provide MOC Part IV credits to participants who successfully meet completion criteria. To learn more about completion criteria and to register for FREE, email Kim Rose (KRose@naspghan.org) by March 31, 2017.
• The Illinois Transition Care Project received MOC Part IV approval from all three primary care boards for its web-based trainings. Course enrollment is now open nationally here. The project offers two separate curricula.
  • The pediatric course offers 15 CME PRA Category 1 Credits™ and 25 Maintenance of Certification Part IV points (approved by the American Board of Pediatrics).
  • The adult medicine course offers 10 CME PRA Category 1 Credits™, 20 Maintenance of Certification Self-Evaluation credits (approved by the American Board of Internal Medicine) and 20 MC-FP Part IV points (approved by the American Board of Family Medicine).
  • For more information, please review this article on the trainings and view the informational flyers for the pediatric course and adult-oriented courses for internal medicine and family medicine.

Other Continuing Education Courses

• Health Services for Children with Special Needs (HSCSN) is offering a free online one-hour CME course on health care transition. The one-hour CME features the experiences of physicians in busy pediatric, family medicine, and internal medicine practices in the District of Columbia who successfully implemented the Six Core Elements using quality improvement methodologies. The course was developed in collaboration with The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health/Got Transition, HSCSN, and the DC Department of Health.
• Transition to Adult Care for Individuals with ID/DD is a one-hour continuing education module in the webinar series, Physician Education in Developmental Disabilities. The 12 credit-hour series is available at https://aadmd.org/page/pedd-webinar-series.
• Handling the Hand-off: Transitioning from the Pediatric to Adult Diabetes Team, a free CME activity for primary care providers, nurse, and clinical support staff (Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard)
• Transition Services for Children and Youth with Special Health-Care Needs (a case management module for physicians, nurses, and social workers from Texas Health Steps)
• CHAT Project (from North Carolina’s Mountain Area Health Education Center)

Graduate Medical and Public Health Education

• Presentations at the University of South Florida for College of Medicine students (September 2018), College of Public Health graduate students (March 2018), USF Psychiatry residents (March 2018), and  Maternal and Child Health agency representatives and students (March 2018), and
• Residency Education in Preparing for Transition to Adult Care: A Pilot Study at USF Health (2014)
• Transitional Care for the Young Adult with Down Syndrome (2012):  Didactic modules developed by Dr. John McCormick at the University of South Florida, Med-Peds Residency Program. If you are interested in collaborating with Dr. McCormick in designing additional modules about the care of young adults with other childhood onset medical conditions, please contact him at jmccormi@health.usf.edu.
  • Introduction to Course
  • Down Syndrome Unit
  • Child Development Chart
• University of Chicago: Transition Care
• Resident Education   (Kitty O’Hare, Harvard)
• Curricula Descriptions  (2011 Baylor Conference; abstracts from UNC, Harvard, Indiana)
• Health Care Transitions (Sue McLaughlin, Brown University)
• Med-Peds Residency Training in Transition (Pediatrics,2010)
• WISHES Curriculum (Kitty O’Hare, Harvard; updated 2011)
• Med-Peds Elective  (Russell Kolarik, Pittsburgh)
• Congenital Heart Disease Module (in draft, Arwa Saidi, UF)

Graduate Certificate

A graduate level, online certificate in Education and Health Care Transition (EdHCT) is now being offered by the University of Florida. Visit https://education.ufl.edu/education-healthcare-transition/ to learn more about integrating education and health care transition, and building expertise in this emerging discipline.

Disability Curricula

• Health Care for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Toolkit for Primary Care Providers (2014, from Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and Surrey Place Centre)
• Disability Curriculum at USF Medical School (Woodard et al., Academic Medicine, 2012)
• Healthcare Access for Persons with Disabilities: Part I (1 contact hour through Florida Gulfcoast North AHEC)
• Healthcare Access for Persons with Disabilities: Part II (1 contact hour through CDC)
• Access to Medical Care (World Institute on Disability)
• Access to Care for Persons with Mobility Disabilities (USHHS, Department of Justice)
• AAMC: Matheny Medical Education
• Oral Health for Persons with Disabilities (an online course from the University of Florida)

Other Resources

• Incorporating Transition into Epic Electronic Health Record Software: A Survey of Expert Users (January 2015 from Got Transition)
• The 2011 Clinical Report on Health Care Transition from the AAP/ACP/AAFP was published in the July 2011 issue of Pediatrics and is available for download here.
• Inpatient Experience in Children’s Hospitals (Pediatrics, 2011)
• Growing Up With a Chronic Illness: Social Success, Educational/Vocational (Journal of Adolescent Health, 2011)
• Transition From Pediatric to Adult Care: Internists’ Perspectives  (Pediatrics, 2009)
• Adolescent with Chronic Illness (Burns et al.)
• Greenville Hospital Med-Peds Residency