Background:

Everyone who works with those who are struggling with infertility want the best for their patients. Whether you provide direct clinical care, laboratory diagnostics or clinical services, administration or other support services the patient is the key stakeholder and should be centre stage of all we do from first contact to exit from the service.

This course is all about how to organise ourselves and the organisation in which we work to provide the best possible service for our patients. It should appeal to all who work in ART Centres but is particularly relevant to clinicians, nurses and scientists with managerial responsibilities.

Aims and objectives:

After participating in the Course, the learner will be able to:

1. Consider the patient’s perspective when providing fertility care.
2. Describe the steps needed to implement a quality management system (QMS).
3. Develop a plan to engage all staff in the fertility centre in implementation of a QMS.
4. Define standards of quality for their fertility centre.
5. Create a system for measuring performance, taking remedial action and re-auditing performance.

General description:

The Course comprises 4 themed Modules and each can be accessed at the student’s convenience through the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). It is not necessary to complete the modules in any particular order but following the flow of the course as presented may  be more appropriate to your needs. The operating system requirements you need to access all parts of the course can be found here https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_3.9_release_notes#Client_requirements.

The theme of each Module covers an important component of a Quality Management System. Topics covered within each module are introduced by a video presentation to give an overview of the subject and are complemented in many instances by important tasks for the student to complete. These practical exercises, referenced to important literature and other resources, are intended to stimulate thought, reflection and personal study. The LMS permits the student to input their assignments on their personal file within the LMS. 

Each Module finishes with a 5 multiple choice questions which allow the student to test their knowledge of the topic. The number of attempts at the questions is not limited. No pass mark is required at this stage.

Schedule or required time:

The Course should take two to three months to complete. The video presentations last around 12 hours in total and personal study of at least 20 hours would be typical. 

Following registration, participants can access all components of the course through the web portal at any time.

Final Assessment:

An on-line test comprising 20 five-part multiple choice questions drawn from any or all of the topics covered in the Modules is presented at the conclusion of the Course. A pass mark of 70%, together with verification by the IFFS Educational Board of all the assigned exercises, will permit the award of a certificate of completion.

This educational activity is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Merck Serono S.p.A.

Course Pricing:

Non-Member: $300

The four modules of this course are accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

Each medical specialist should claim only those credits that he/she actually spent in the educational activity. The EACCME is an institution of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). Only those e-learning materials that are displayed on the UEMS-EACCME website have formally been accredited. 

Through an agreement between the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) and the American Medical Association (AMA), physicians may convert EACCME credits to an equivalent number of AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM.

Information on the process to convert EACCME credit to AMA credit can be found at www.ama-assn.org/education/earn-credit-participation-international-activities.