By: Scott Duarte, DPT, MBA

Strenuous, Inconvenient, Monotonous and Confusing.

These are the initial words that come to mind when thinking about my experience with my continuing education and maintenance of certifications. Unfortunately, none of these words are positive.

I will be the first to admit that I heavily procrastinate when it comes to my continuing education, but I know I am not the only one, so I justify it in my own mind. It is daunting at times, because I hold 5 different state Physical Therapy licenses, and everyone is different. I try to keep track, but life and work get in the way. Then you get that dreaded email or letter from one state that says your renewal is due. Great, I have only completed 10 hours of the 32 that I need, and I have 7 days to complete them.

At least you think it is 10 or maybe it is 12?

Thus, begins digging through emails and searching files to see how many hours I actually have. After about an hour of arguing with myself and research about how I swore I got more credit for hours than 2.25 for that one class. I come to the hard realization that I only have 8.75. I need 23.25 more by the end of the week.

Now comes the internal struggle of how I am supposed to get .25, not the whole 23.25, just the .25. It doesn’t make sense to me.

Okay, so one day down out of the seven, just figuring out what I actually need and a little bit of internal struggle about that dreaded .25!

So, I space it out. I have 6-days. If I do 4 hours a day for 6-days, I’ll have 24 hours and be done…

2 days to go! I have completed 5 more hours.  Procrastination at its finest.

Weekend is here! A text rolls in, “Hey what are your plans this weekend?!”

Response: “Well you see, I have to do 18 hours of work, so I can work. If that makes sense. So, I’ll be stuck on my couch all weekend.”

Sunday night I finish. Did I learn things, yes. Was it the best quality, no. I should feel more accomplished because I finished all the hours and learned so much, but I don’t. I just think about how I could have enjoyed my weekend.

But at least I do not have to do this for another 2 years! Wait. Half the hours are not compatible with my other license that is due in 3 months. Frustration sets in.

Next time I am going to start early and attempt to organize everything sooner, but how?

3 Months later, Response to text: ”I am sorry I can’t do anything this weekend, I did not know I had to take a particular course to maintain my professional license.”

Repeat Process.

Scott Duarte, DPT, MBA

The CME experience is very real and painful for many clinicians. CME is supposed to be a tool to sharpen our clinicians’ skills to manage a career in an ever-changing environment of the medical industry. Mocingbird understands that the CME process is dreaded by many clinicians. 

We understand that being a medical professional, especially in COVID times, is overwhelming and the inefficient, complicated, daunting CME process is the icing on the cake. There is an easier way to tackle CME and we are here to help to make the process easier and more efficient. 

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