Meeting IL Licensing Education Requirements

Effective January 2023, all healthcare professionals who hold a license with the state of Illinois must complete continuing education on the following topics for each 3-year licensure period. Note that these special requirements count towards the hours of regular continuing education required for licensure renewal.

  1. Sexual Harassment Prevention: 1 hour
  2. Safe Opioid Prescribing: 3 hours (for all prescribers with a Controlled Substances Registration)
  3. (NEW) Implicit Bias: 1 hour
  4. (NEW) Recognizing Dementia: 1 hour (for all who see adults age 26 or older)
  5. (NEW) Reporting Child Abuse: 1 hour (for all who see children)

Note also that the requirement for Sexual Harassment Prevention, Recognizing Dementia, and Implicit Bias training do not apply for those renewing an IL license for the first time. This means that if you first got your IL license between 2020 and 2023, you do not need to complete this education until your subsequent license renewal between 2026 and 2029. However, for practitioners with a controlled substances registration, there is no such waiver for the Safe Opioid Prescribing requirement for first-time license renewers—this is required of all.

The WU CME office is working to ensure availability of free or low cost options for WU employees to meet these requirements and minimize duplication of effort in meeting other WU compliance requirements.  

  • Sexual Harassment Prevention
    • All WU employees who are assigned an IL work location, who manage IL employees, or who hold an IL health professions license are assigned Harassment Prevention for Illinois Employees or Harassment Prevention for Illinois Managers in Learn@Work.
    • This module satisfies both the State of IL and the WU compliance requirements. 
    • The certificate of completion available in Learn@Work is sufficient for the State of IL.
    • Additionally, AMA/ANCC credit will be available for free on the WU CME website for WU physicians, nurses, and PAs who complete a short evaluation. You will receive additional information from the CME office regarding how to claim credit within 2 weeks of completion.
  • Safe Opioid Prescribing
    • Pain Management and Opioids is available at NEJM, offering free AMA (up to 10.25 credits), MOC part II, AAPA, AANP, and ACPE credit. This was renewed with a new termination date of April 14, 2024. It involves 63 vignette-based multiple-choice questions. There is no recorded presentation to watch. Credit is based on the number of questions answered correctly by the end of module completion and any questions answered incorrectly are represented with an opportunity to update your answers. 
    • AMA Ed Hub has many courses totaling 36.5 free credits on opioids/substance abuse.
    • MedIQ offers complimentary courses for WU employees since we have insurance coverage through their company, and they have 2 courses addressing opioids and pain management totaling 2.25 credits.
      • Addiction Management: Opioids and Alternatives
      • Refreshing Our Approach to Opioids: Alternatives, Benzos, and Risky Behavior
    • The CDC offers free opioid education, but as of May 2023, there is just 1 CDC course available, which is worth 1 AMA credit for completing 4 modules
  • Implicit Bias Awareness
    • Free option #1: SAFE modules
      • Currently being modified to satisfy IL requirement. Expected availability: late June 2023. Those who have already completed the first 4 modules will only need to complete the new material. We will reach out with instructions for completion as soon as this is available.
      • A credit certificate (for WU physicians and nurses) or certificate of completion (for other WU employees) will be available for free on the WU CME website for those who complete all 5 modules and evaluation.
    • Free option #2: WUSM 2.0 – Examining Unconscious Bias
      • 1-hour in-person or virtual training session offered monthly by the DEI office. No CME credit available for this activity but the DEI office will offer a certificate through Saba (which is sufficient for the state of IL). If you completed this training and do not see it recorded there, you may request a certificate from https://diversity.med.wustl.edu/training/training-tracking-form/ or contact the DEI office for more information. (Note: this is the only DEI office-provided training session that specifically meets the IL licensing requirement—WUMS 1.0, 3.0, and 4.0 do not.)
  • Recognizing Dementia
    • A 1-hour online module is under development with anticipated availability by June 2023. We will reach out with instructions for completion as soon as this is available.
    • This will be free for WU employees and will cost $15 for non-WU learners.
  • Reporting Child Abuse

There are other options to meet these education requirements. The IL state medical society provides education on all the topics that is free for members and $75 per 1-hour module for non-members. Live or online education by an accredited continuing education provider or another University can also be used to meet the requirements, and online modules from different institutions are sometimes made available for free.

Q&A

Q. Where do I upload the proof of completion of education?

A. You will only be asked to attest to meeting the training/CME requirements when you complete your license renewal application. You will not be asked to upload certificates with the application, but you should keep them in your records in the event of audit. There is nobody at WU that you need to share completion data with—anything WU needs (harassment prevention and the first 4 SAFE modules) is already recorded in Learn@Work and Canvas.

Q. Do these requirements apply to our NPs and PAs?

A. Yes, as well as to nearly all other healthcare professionals with an IL license. Links to the IL statutes addressing the education requirements are provided at the bottom of this message. These detail the professions affected, but if you have further questions, please contact the IL state society for your profession.

Q. What if I don't plan to renew my IL license?

A. Please make sure to discuss your intentions with your department since if you do not maintain your IL license, you will be unable to see any patients physically located in the state of IL via telehealth. Those who are not renewing should still take the harassment prevention module for IL that was assigned by HR but can disregard the other requirements. This module takes the same amount of time as the one for non-IL employees and meets the HR requirement.

Q. How do I know if I completed the first 4 SAFE modules?

A. You may send an email with your query to MedExtendedLearning@wustl.edu. But realize that the the first 4 modules by themselves will not meet the Implicit Bias education requirement. The 5th module currently being developed along with the first 4 will meet the requirement. 

Q. When does education need to be completed in order to remain compliant?

A. IL license renewal deadlines are on July 31. So if your IL license is expiring in 2023, you will need to attest to having completed the education by the renewal deadline of July 31, 2023.

Q. Who is ensuring we complete all these requirements?

A. As with general CE requirements for board certification, hospital appointments, and state licensure, ensuring completion of the special CE requirements for the state of IL is the responsibility of the individual practitioner. Your department may have a credentialing coordinator who can help. If you're not sure, reach out to your department's business office. If you want to keep the certificates electronically with your WU CME transcripts so everything is in one place, you can upload them to the “My External Certificates” tab under My Account on the WU CME website. Login with your wustlkey and look for it under the list of tabs on the right.

Q. How does an education requirement based on hours relate to number of AMA credits available for an activity? Do we have to keep track of the number of hours we spent?

A. AMA credits count as hours regardless of how much time the person actually spends doing the activity. So at 10.25 credits, the NEJM opioid activity is worth 10.25 hours and fully satisfies both the IL ad DEA requirement. You don't have to document anything beyond saving the certificate that lists the number of credits awarded.

Q. Can I use the same opioid education to meet the requirement for both my IL license and the new DEA requirement?

A. Yes! The options listed above (as well as any other safe opioid prescribing education provided by an accredited organization) can be used for both requirements. The DEA requirement is 8 hours of education, one time only, whereas the IL requirement is for 3 hours every 3 years.

References

Updated 5/4/23



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