My wife taught math for 26 years before retiring. She always says that "educational choices have consequences." Nowhere is that more true than in the intersection between the medical and legal worlds.
One of the things we see frequently with professionals that get sued, or get hauled up on charges before their professional board, is minimal compliance with continuing education requirements.
Continuing education is not a punishment, it's a reward. Continuing education is what keeps you out of the plaintiff's lawyer's crosshairs. It arms you with the knowledge of what's current (the state of the art), and protects you from a suggestion that you don't know what you're doing. Science marches on. What was good in the 1980s may not be good medicine today.
Many years ago when I practiced I had read about Epiglottitis but I had never seen it. At a seminar we watched a video and saw the management of a 2 year old infant with the condition. Less than four months later I saw the same type of child in the ER, and the ER doctor wanted IPPB. I patiently explained that we could not and should not do that, but should call Anesthesia. The ER doctor took umbrage, called my supervisor, and when I refused to give a crowing child a mask IPPB treatment, he did. I still wonder how he didn't kill that boy. A few minutes after the treatment as the child continued to get worse, I grabbed an anesthesiologist who recognized the problem right away and got the child sedated and intubated. Catastrophe was avoided by only the narrowest of margins. But if I had not gone to the seminar, if I had not seen the video, I likely would have been part of the child's death.
Sure CRCE costs money. Sure it's a licensure requirement. But, it should be considered a reward you give yourself. Staying on top of things, learning new things, and getting the benefit of other clinician's experience is priceless. I would no more walk into an ICU today (having been out of practice for 20 years) and try to manage a ventilator than I would attempt to fly without an airplane. I know that time marches on and things change. A patient who dies because of error is a tragedy. If the error is caused by ignorance, then its a tragedy compounded with guilt.
Anthony L. DeWitt, RRT, CRT, JD
Attorney
FAARC