Viewpoints on Accreditation from Health Education Professionals and Administrators of Academic Professional Preparation Programs

Abstract

The health education profession has made significant strides in promoting quality assurance for credentialing of health educators through a combination of individual certification and program approval and accreditation mechanisms. Although the profession has widely embraced individual certification, program accreditation has not been uniformly accepted nor implemented. The National Task Force on Accreditation in Health Education was charged to develop a detailed plan for a coordinated accreditation system for undergraduate and graduate programs in health education. One of the goals of the task force was to gather professionwide input into any proposed new system. We conducted two Web-based surveys to assess viewpoints on accreditation and program approval from health education professionals (n=506) and from faculty and administrators at academic programs in health education (n=105). Results from the surveys show that the majority of professionals in the field and at academic programs surveyed supported and would participate in a national, coordinated, professionwide accreditation system in health education. Furthermore, the majority of respondents suggested that the accreditation system should be comprehensive, flexible, build on the strengths of existing accreditation systems, and be linked to individual certification. Findings from these surveys, along with other input from the field, will help inform the final recommendations of the task force.