In April 2015, the Institute of Medicine convened a public workshop to explore recent shifts in the health and health care industry and their implications for health professional education (HPE) and workforce learning. This study serves as a follow-up to the 2009 Lancet Commission report on health professions education for the 21st century and seeks to expand the report's messages beyond medicine, nursing, and public health. Envisioning the Future of Health Professional Education discusses opportunities for new platforms of communication and learning, continuous education of the health workforce, opportunities for team-based care and other types of collaborations, and social accountability of the health professions. This study explores the implications that shifts in health, policy, and the health care industry could have on HPE and workforce learning, identifies learning platforms that could facilitate effective knowledge transfer with improved quality and efficiency, and discusses opportunities for building a global health workforce that understands the role of culture and health literacy in perceptions and approaches to health and disease.

On November 13 and 14, 2018, members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education participated in a joint workshop with affiliates of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. The workshop participants explored the intersection of health professions education and practice. Both sectors are working toward the same goal of improving the health of patients and populations, without compromising the mental stability and wellbeing of the workforce or its learners. However, while education and practice have the same goal, there is a need for greater alignment between the sectors to more fully realize these desired outcomes. For example, educators, practitioners, and administrators must learn to adapt and respond to the growing role of technology within a wider context, in order to most effectively apply higher education within health systems. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Assessing Health Professional Education is the summary of a workshop hosted by the Institute of Medicine's Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education to explore assessment of health professional education. At the event, Forum members shared personal experiences and learned from patients, students, educators, and practicing health care and prevention professionals about the role each could play in assessing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of all learners and educators across the education to practice continuum. The workshop focused on assessing both individuals as well as team performance. This report discusses assessment challenges and opportunities for interprofessional education, team-based care, and other forms of health professional collaborations that emphasize the health and social needs of communities.

Tomorrow’s best physicians will be those who continually learn, adjust, and innovate as new information and best practices evolve, reflecting adaptive expertise in response to practice challenges. As the first volume in the American Medical Association’s MedEd Innovation Series, The Master Adaptive Learner is an instructor-focused guide covering models for how to train and teach future clinicians who need to develop these adaptive skills and utilize them throughout their careers. Explains and clarifies the concept of a Master Adaptive Learner: a metacognitive approach to learning based on self-regulation that fosters the success and use of adaptive expertise in practice. Contains both theoretical and practical material for instructors and administrators, including guidance on how to implement a Master Adaptive Learner approach in today’s institutions. Gives instructors the tools needed to empower students to become efficient and successful adaptive learners. Helps medical faculty and instructors address gaps in physician training and prepare new doctors to practice effectively in 21st century healthcare systems. One of the American Medical Association Change MedEd initiatives and innovations, written and edited by members of the ACE (Accelerating Change in Medical Education) Consortium – a unique, innovative collaborative that allows for the sharing and dissemination of groundbreaking ideas and projects.

Today in the United States, the professional health workforce is not consistently prepared to provide high quality health care and assure patient safety, even as the nation spends more per capita on health care than any other country. The absence of a comprehensive and well-integrated system of continuing education (CE) in the health professions is an important contributing factor to knowledge and performance deficiencies at the individual and system levels. To be most effective, health professionals at every stage of their careers must continue learning about advances in research and treatment in their fields (and related fields) in order to obtain and maintain up-to-date knowledge and skills in caring for their patients. Many health professionals regularly undertake a variety of efforts to stay up to date, but on a larger scale, the nation's approach to CE for health professionals fails to support the professions in their efforts to achieve and maintain proficiency. Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions illustrates a vision for a better system through a comprehensive approach of continuing professional development, and posits a framework upon which to develop a new, more effective system. The book also offers principles to guide the creation of a national continuing education institute.

The decade ahead will test the nation's nearly 4 million nurses in new and complex ways. Nurses live and work at the intersection of health, education, and communities. Nurses work in a wide array of settings and practice at a range of professional levels. They are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds and experiences seeking care and they represent the largest of the health care professions. A nation cannot fully thrive until everyone - no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make - can live their healthiest possible life, and helping people live their healthiest life is and has always been the essential role of nurses. Nurses have a critical role to play in achieving the goal of health equity, but they need robust education, supportive work environments, and autonomy. Accordingly, at the request of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on behalf of the National Academy of Medicine, an ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted a study aimed at envisioning and charting a path forward for the nursing profession to help reduce inequities in people's ability to achieve their full health potential. The ultimate goal is the achievement of health equity in the United States built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. By leveraging these attributes, nursing will help to create and contribute comprehensively to equitable public health and health care systems that are designed to work for everyone. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity explores how nurses can work to reduce health disparities and promote equity, while keeping costs at bay, utilizing technology, and maintaining patient and family-focused care into 2030. This work builds on the foundation set out by The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) report.

A pressing challenge in the modern health care system is the gap between education and clinical practice. Emerging technologies have the potential to bridge this gap by creating the kind of team-based learning environments and clinical approaches that are increasingly necessary in the modern health care system both in the United States and around the world. To explore these technologies and their potential for improving education and practice, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop in November 2017. Participants explored effective use of technologies as tools for bridging identified gaps within and between health professions education and practice in order to optimize learning, performance and access in high-, middle-, and low-income areas while ensuring the well-being of the formal and informal health workforce. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.