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Role of Professional Associations
Pre-Health Professional Development (HLTH 3300)
The University of Texas at Dallas
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Role of Professional Associations
● 3 levels of professional associations: ○ National level ■ State level ● Local chapter/regional ● There are different membership categories ○ Access to journals given for student level ● Membership: Professional (fully licensed and practicing) → $400/yr Student (director must sign for them) → $25/yr ● Associations do things that professionals don’t have the time for ● All offices are in D. because they were founded there ○ State ones are in state capitols ○ Will have regional or local chapters (local bigger than regional)
Structure of Associations
● National’s same as state’s ● Employs different health professionals for each group (ex: dental could work in optometry)
Different roles in association
- Executive director : top • manages everyone/everything $$$
- Assistant director : hires people
- Membership director : works directly with individuals about joining and dues, etc.
- Advocacy staff: (multiple people) • support: your voice for your profession. This is important because of possible threats to your scope of practice. Sometimes when different laws are proposed, some health professionals take away things from others’ scope of practice. a. *because they get a new pop. of pts. And get more $ ● Create ongoing legislative alerts b. Ex. optometry doesn’t do a lot of things that are in licensure ● Physicians go and call reps with pre-written scripts (ex. if professionals don’t advocate then certain laws and conditions will continue)
- Director of Continuing Education: ● You have two years to get hours to renew license
- Staff under director of continuing education (CE): organizes staff-conferences, In TX, conferences rotate to allow people to go. ● If you’re a member, you can get a discount and get more hours. ● Coordinates with other healthcare associations ● Sessions are based on level and content ● People might get money from their workplace to go to conferences ● CEU = continuing education unit ● You need specific # of CEUS in the renewal cycle to stay licensed
● You have to track your own hours ● CEUs reset after a 2 yr cycle 7. Publications : people that gather journal article submissions ● Automatically get it if you pay your dues 8. Professional Committees: made up of healthcare professionals → Ethics: receives info, monitors things, make sessions to address issues → Research: work with publications team → Public Policy: work with advocacy staff (this is what is important to us) → clinician issues: works with practice issues (suddenly seeing trends) exchange of clinical info ● Healthcare professionals are part of committees because you get info, or who’s trying to go up in job ladder, ** employee may ask you to do this; names are published on website, so marketing ploy (patients see it as knowledgeable) 9. Board: positions held for two years a. President b. V. c. Secretary d. Treasurer -if you get to one of these levels, it’s free marketing to the hospital -committees and board are not compensated but get a free ride to meetings in cities.
Benefits:
● Professional journals ● Some will let you buy discounted malpractice insurance (*not all) ● Unlimited legal care → if pt. says that they’ll sue you, you call a 1- number, give your ID #, and talk directly to attorneys and describe interaction with patient and they’ll give you options. → if it gets more serious, you can call them and they’ll give you #s of attorneys near where you live who deal with healthcare professionals ● Job Bank: hosting jobs for specific professions ○ Licensure vs. certification: licensure is mandatory, you must have a license in order to work - certification is optional. You can be certified in procedure, assessments, etc.; these are things you weren’t trained for when you were in health professional school. Different from going to a conference, you go thru extensive training. ■ Ex. lithotripsy in urology ■ Certification are offered periodically; your workplace may ask you to do a certification. ● This happens in healthcare management more frequently because their jobs are dependent on this.
Role of Professional Associations
Course: Pre-Health Professional Development (HLTH 3300)
University: The University of Texas at Dallas
