Healthcare professional development programs see increased enrollment

By Nora Zelluk

In the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic environment, three online healthcare professional development programs offered through UD’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies have been experiencing increased interest and enrollment.

With telehealth solutions taking center stage during the pandemic, UD’s Advanced Telehealth Coordinator Online Certificate program experienced more than double the usual enrollment in 2020, with some registrants requesting early course access to accelerate their learning.

UD alumna Gemma Lowery, telehealth program manager for ChristianaCare, recently joined UD’s certificate program as lead instructor and program director. Responsible for leading and expanding telemedicine initiatives for the state's largest health system as well as one the first graduates of UD’s Advanced Telehealth Coordinator Certificate program, Lowery believes that although most healthcare providers were already familiar with or had begun to explore telehealth implementations, one result of the pandemic was to accelerate their adoption efforts, adding, “The COVID-19 crisis has shined a bright light on the value of telehealth as a very significant part of our medical treatment toolkit.”

The RN Refresher Online program experienced a similar surge, with nearly 300 more program inquiries compared to last year at the same time, and significantly increased registrations. “We’re hearing from RNs who tell us they’re responding to events in their home states and communities, and reporting that their area hospitals are looking for nurses who have previous clinical experience and want to come back to clinical practice,” said program director Kate Salvato. “Several of our participants specifically commented that the pandemic situation rekindled their desire to return to active nursing practice.”

For the long-running Clinical Trials Management Online Certificate program, normally offered twice a year, a third cohort was added this year for the first time. Registrations in 2020 jumped to more than triple last year’s enrollment.

Clinical research is a field for individuals who have a passion for leaving their footprint in research as well as seeing the impact their efforts make to humankind,” said Michele Welch, program director and lead faculty for the program.

“And as we discussed in one of our recent class threads,” added Welch, “course participants are not only learning the theory of clinical development in this program, but we are also living it, with real-time case studies provided in our daily current events.”

Visit https://www.pcs.udel.edu/health/ to learn about all healthcare programs.