When she received the news from the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education in late July, Nancy Bjorklund, EdD, MPA, and her team in the Office of Continuing Education at WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) took a moment to celebrate.
“We did a little team touchdown dance,” Dr. Bjorklund said of the moments that followed word on July 27 that WMed had been awarded Joint Accreditation with Commendation through 2032 – the highest level of recognition granted by the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education.
“It really is one of the proudest moments for my entire team,” said Dr. Bjorklund, who serves as assistant dean for Global and Continuing Education at WMed. “We worked so hard.”
The distinction reflects compliance with all 12 core accreditation criteria and seven commendation criteria, the highest level of achievement awarded by the Joint Accreditors. Dr. Bjorklund said Joint Accreditation is considered “the gold standard” in interprofessional continuing education for the healthcare team.
In earning Joint Accreditation with Commendation, WMed joins an elite group of leading medical schools, academic medical centers, hospitals, and national healthcare organizations recognized for advancing educational excellence, improving team-based care, and demonstrating meaningful impact on healthcare quality and patient outcomes. In Michigan, specifically, WMed is one of only four jointly accredited CE providers and one of only two in the state to attain Joint Accreditation with Commendation.
The Office of Continuing Education at WMed provides continuing education for physicians, nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, social workers, psychologists, physician assistants, and dieticians using a unified accreditation process and a set of accreditation standards. It also provides interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) for all learners. In 2022, the Office of CE received Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education for a four-year period. WMed first earned accreditation in 2018.
Dr. Bjorklund said the pursuit of Joint Accreditation with Commendation began in June 2025. The rigorous process that followed included compiling a comprehensive 200-page self-review and extensive analysis of activities offered by the Office of CE over the last four years, as well as a site interview with the Joint Accreditation team.
Dr. Bjorklund said she was incredibly proud of the CE team at WMed – Kelsey Caras, Kristi Kling, and Courtney Puffer – and noted that the recognition of Joint Accreditation with Commendation “is a direct reflection of their expertise, dedication, and countless hours of work throughout the reaccreditation process.”
“The Joint Accreditors specifically recognized WMed as ‘a learning organization and a change agent for the interprofessional healthcare teams we serve’ highlighting our commitment to quality improvement and meaningful impact across the healthcare team,” Dr. Bjorklund said. “This recognition is a testament to the unwavering commitment of our Continuing Education team and to WMed's dedication to advancing high-quality, interprofessional education that ultimately improves patient care.”
Joint Accreditation benchmarks accredited providers by the size of their continuing education portfolio. Organizations like WMed that offer more than 250 educational activities annually are considered XL providers, reflecting the scale, complexity, and operational capacity of the medical school’s continuing education program.
From 2022 to 2026, Dr. Bjorklund said the Office of CE served more than 12,500 healthcare professionals and awarded more than 170,000 credit hours through its educational activities for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, social workers, and other members of the healthcare team.
She added that one of the distinguishing requirements of Joint Accreditation is that at least 25 percent of all CE activities must be true interprofessional continuing education intentionally designed by healthcare professionals from multiple disciplines to ensure participants learn with, from, and about one another to improve collaboration and patient outcomes. At WMed, the goal is to embed interprofessional collaboration throughout the educational portfolio to far exceed that minimum standard.