For more than 30 years, Contemporary Forums has been one of the leading providers of continuing education and professional development in health care. Three years ago, Contemporary Forums teamed with West Coast University and American Career College in offering health care education. Recently, we talked to Jocelyn Vasquez, the vice president of business development for Contemporary Forums, to learn about the organization and its accomplishments.
What programs do you offer to working professionals?
Contemporary Forums focuses on advanced practice women’s health, pharmacology, pediatrics, primary care, a variety of different specialized topics.
How are your programs relevant to our nursing graduates?
What’s really exciting in this industry is that having the integration with Contemporary Forums, American Career College and West Coast Universtiy really allows us to focus on the outcomes for our graduates and ensure that we give them our commitment of meeting their lifelong educational requirements and needs. For example, a nursing graduate would need continuing education within two years upon graduation. The underlying message is we’re about lifelong learning between all three brands and being able to give that commitment not only to a student but an alumni and a clinical partner.
You recently received a joint accreditation. Why is that important?
We are now known as one of 17 providers within the United States to have this joint accreditation. The reason it’s important and relevant is it’s very focused on interprofessional education and is outcome-orientated. And that’s the message that all three brands stand behind, is that we want to focus on outcomes and that’s the kind of practice that the clinical partners and the people out in the field are requesting. They want that hands-on, interprofessional educational training to make sure the patient ultimately has a better experience.
What big things or guest speakers can we look forward to this year at Contemporary Forums?
We have the opportunity to host Dr. Jennifer Arnold (renowned pediatrician and star of the “Little Couple” TV show) again, as a returning faculty member with us. We also are launching a few new national conferences for Contemporary Forums, such as a dermatology conference in San Diego in the fall, also a chronic disease management conference. We also have seen a high demand for the mobile app for our attendees — that’s another thing we’re embarking on this year. Then I think there will be a few more things to come.
Anything you want to add or people to know?
I’m extremely proud to represent Contemporary Forums and be part of an organization that people have so much pride and so much passion in the quality of work that they do and the services that we offer. It’s extremely impressive when you see not just the longevity with the associates, but the longevity of the returning faculty. There’s over 6,000 faculty members that share that same passion and share that same vision. There are over 300,000 health care professionals that Contemporary Forums has serviced through the years. Those are pretty powerful statements and it has a reputable product, and a great reputation that I’m really pleased to stand behind and then the marriage between the brands, between ACC and WCU, I feel, really sets us apart as an organization as a whole.
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