Abstract - complete

ABSTRACT:

Attachment A for Part 1 Worksheet

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through its Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs) offers training activities on public health topics to professionals worldwide. Employees of hospitals, universities, medical centers, laboratories, state and federal agencies, and state and local health departments apply for training in an effort to learn up-to-date public health practices. CDC’s training activities include laboratory training, classroom study, online training, and distance learning activities.

These training application forms provide CDC with information necessary to manage and conduct training activities pertinent to its agency mission. The information collected with these forms allows CDC to send confirmation of registration to participants, provide certificates of attendance or continuing education credits as proof of their attendance, and generate management reports used to identify training needs, design courses, select location for courses, and evaluate programs.

CDC is accredited by six different continuing education organizations to award credit: (1) the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) to provide Continuing Education Units (CEUs), (2) the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide Continuing Medical Education credits (CME), (3) the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide Continuing Nurse Education credits (CNE), (4) the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) to award CHES credit, (5) the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) to provide continuing pharmacy credit, and (6) the American Association of Veterinary State Boards to award Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE) credit. The accrediting organizations require a method of tracking an individual completing an educational activity and demographic data allows us to do so. Also, many of the organizations require a permanent record which lists the participant’s name, address, and phone number to retrieve historical information as to when a particular individual completed a course or several courses over a time period. This information provides the basis for producing a requested transcript or determining if a person is enrolled in more than one course. The email address is used to verify the participant’s electronic request for transcripts, course certificates and confirmation into the course.

The information requested on the forms is used to grant public health professionals the continuing education credits they need to maintain their licenses and certification required by their profession. This information is also needed to create a transcript or summary of training completed at the participant’s request. In addition, the forms are also needed to generate management reports and to maintain training statistics. These reports assist CDC in the management of its training programs, such as, identifying training needs, designing courses, selecting locations for courses, and evaluating programs.

CDC’s training application forms are used for uniformity and standardization that are required for tracking attendance in the course offerings. The standardized data that is required for the laboratory training, classroom study, online training, and distance learning activities are only provided on these forms. No other CDC component requests this information.

This information on the registration form is required in order to meet the accrediting organizations standards and to distinguish specific professional groups for aggregate reporting purposes. Data is collected only once per course or once per new registration.

The annual burden table has been updated to reflect an increase in distanced based learning. There are no costs to the respondents other than their time.