The Defense Health Agency J-7 (Education & Training) Continuing Education Program Office (CEPO) offers unlimited CE credits and Certificates of Attendance (CAs) to health care professionals who actively treat service members, veterans, and their family members. With unlimited CEs and CAs, CEPO supports the full range of military operations in order to sustain the health of all those entrusted to DHA’s medical care by serving as the centralized, innovative, multimodal, cost effective CE program throughout the DHA Directorates and Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs).

Mission Statement

Introduction

The Defense Health Agency (DHA), J-7 (Education & Training Directorate), Continuing Education Program Office (CEPO)’s mission is to:

  • Enhance DHA’s ability to provide enterprise-wide continuing education (CE) activities to all health care providers and support the full range of military operations in order to sustain the health of all those entrusted to DHA’s medical care. DHA J-7 CEPO serves as the centralized, innovative, multimodal, cost effective CE program throughout the DHA Directorates and Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs).
  • Employ the latest educational & technical advancements and an efficient infrastructure that plans, approves, tracks/reports, and delivers CE accreditation services for multiple health care professionals. This includes an accessible learning management system that is unified and relevant to the continually evolving health care system.
  • Disseminate evidenced-based life-long learning.
  • Implement a systems approach that integrates measures of access, quality, patient safety, medical readiness, and efficiency in assessing program effectiveness.
  • Demonstrate that health care teams receive quality CE that is designed to be independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in improving the quality and safety of care delivered by the teams.
  • Continue to maintain good standing with our accrediting organizations and expand the scope of the CE subject matter to meet the diverse and continually evolving needs of the health care professionals.

DHA, J-7, CEPO fulfills its mission by providing education and training for the Department of Defense’s interdisciplinary teams of health professionals: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physician assistants, optometrists, social workers, psychologists, dentists, dental hygienists, dental technicians, occupational therapists, counselors, health care executives, case managers, and kinesiotherapists. Learners are offered unlimited CE credits and certificates of attendance (CA) for accredited events.

The CE program is also critical in aligning with two of the DHA’s three main strategic goals: (1) optimize the DHA for greater performance, and (2) co-create optimal outcomes for health, well-being, and readiness. This is accomplished by institutionalizing a supportive learning environment, creating and codifying learning processes and practices, and providing leadership behavior that clearly enforces a culture of life-long learning.

Expected Results of DHA’s CE Program

DHA, J-7, CEPO’s expected results of the centralized CE program are to facilitate best practices, interprofessional learning, and military readiness, which enhances the knowledge, skills, and practices of the health care team. All CE activities are formally evaluated post-event by learners and planners to determine the extent to which the expected results have been achieved. The expected results are as follows:

  • Acquisition of evidence-based and best practice strategies for the health care team and their application in patient care.
  • Enhanced strategies and skills in military health care professionals by providing education activities that seek to educate those who treat our active and veteran military force.
  • Improved interprofessional communication skills for learning about and from the members of the health care team.
  • Committed to life-long learning and the application of knowledge, skills, and practices in the clinical setting.
  • Learner participation in assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of CE activities.
  • Facilitated improvements in the collaborative team approach to patient care by educating providers of new methodologies or the importance of existing processes.
  • Identify, prioritize, and translate evidence-based practices and research into clinical standards, thereby improving quality and increasing efficiency in health care delivery across the continuum of care.