>>SINGER: Hi, my name is Steve Singer. I'm the Vice President for Education and Outreach at the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

>>McCALL: Hi, I'm Niles McCall. I'm the Education Coordinator at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services in Gallup, New Mexico.

>>SINGER: Hi, Niles, thanks for being here.

>>McCALL: Oh, it's my pleasure to be here.

>>SINGER: I want to talk about your career and... Well, let's first talk about where you are now.

>>McCALL: Okay. Okay. Well, of course, I'm the education coordinator coordinating CME activity at our hospital, but branching out, going from the office in my hospital I now partner with Indian Health Service Hospital, which is significantly larger than mine, across the street.

>>SINGER: Right. And we just did a video about that.

>>McCALL: That's right. So we have a full partnership.

>>SINGER: So if you're interested in that, take a look on the website and check out that. Okay.

>>McCALL: That's right. And then, of course, I do joint providerships with a lot of other partners and with other hospitals who don't want to have their own CME program. We now partner together and work on things from there. Then I also am now recognized because of my experience and knowledge that I've gained in working with the state CME committee through the New Mexico Medical Society.

>>SINGER: Okay. So New Mexico is a recognized accreditor or state accreditor?

>>McCALL: Yes, state-accredited provider.

>>SINGER: With ACCME. And you're a member of their committee that helps to educate and review accredited providers within the state for meeting the expectations of the CME accreditation.

>>McCALL: Right. It's kind of a unique position because I'm the only non-physician on the committee.

>>SINGER: Interesting. Okay.

>>McCALL: I guess the reason why they invited me is because I have a lot of experience.

>>SINGER: Sure.

>>McCALL: I also think outside the box, I think quite a bit, and can recommend different approaches to education that maybe other people haven't thought of, so I think that's another strength that's good to have.

>>SINGER: Great. Okay. In the other video, we talked about your approach with regard to addressing a real health issue with Native American population. And where we ended that video, we talked about that really you found yourself in a very strategic position within your hospital so that you're working with the quality department and with the support of the C-Suite, the executive suite, to address strategic issues for the hospital.

>>McCALL: Right.

>>SINGER: So we don't need to go back into that again, but one of the questions I have is that we were having a conversation earlier and you said, "Well, when I started in the job, when I started in CME, I started at the beginning," right?

>>McCALL: Right.

>>SINGER: So one of the questions that I have for you is that as we look to professionals who are new in CME, what advice could you give them? What have you learned? What would you like to share with them as they embark on a career in continuing education?

>>McCALL: Well, I guess, starting at the beginning, it depends on your background. I had a background as a medical and university librarian.

>>SINGER: Yup.

>>McCALL: So that has something to do with at least health care. If you're an RN, if you're a registered nurse or a physical therapist, or whatever your background is, you can actually use that to understand education, medical education, in determining what the gaps are and what kind of educational needs are and how you're going to meet them. So even if you've had no experience in continuing medical education, but you have experience in health care in some way, you can probably use that experience to slowly learn what people need and how to meet their educational needs.

>>SINGER: It's probably a problem solving.

>>McCALL: Yeah, problem solving, right.

>>SINGER: Okay.

>>McCALL: And then I also encourage people just to think outside the box. Look for every opportunity you can to find out where the gaps are. You might have to attend quality meetings or other administrative meetings, physician meetings, anything that you can attend, or even just pop in on a departmental meeting for pediatrics or whatever, just to find out what's going on in a department because quite often providers are not really thinking of CME or need for education, but as you're sitting there, you can suggest, "Hey, why don't we bring in somebody to talk about this?" Or, "We could bring in... " Or, "We know that there's a model or protocol out there that the university is using a couple hours away, why don't we ask someone to come in to talk about that?"

>>SINGER: Sure.

>>McCALL: So we can introduce it another.

>>SINGER: That's great. So you're being open to working with others, being aware that CME may not be in front of mind for other groups, and you're doing internal education to help make them aware of the ways in which you could serve and help them.

>>McCALL: That's right. I'm constantly discovering that other people in the C-Suite and other directors, administrators I work with, they're just not thinking the same way as I am in CME. I'm thinking about, where are the gaps? What kind of needs need to be met? How can we meet them? And they're more concerned about the immediate problem at hand. I don't know, they don't know what to do about this problem that they're wringing their hands about that or trying to find a solution, but maybe their solution has something to do with the CME office.

>>SINGER: Right. The educational solution.

>>McCALL: So there I am. Right. I can be right in the in middle of it suggesting, "Hey, I can help you out."

>>SINGER: That's great. So last question for you, as you look towards volunteerism, because certainly you have this as your day job, this is what you do, but in terms of volunteers, and you mentioned some reasons why they look to you for your expertise, but what would you say to others in terms of providing that commitment of time and service to become a volunteer?

>>McCALL: Well, it's great being able to help others. I've met other people in CME who are just getting started, maybe a year or two, and they're just not sure... They're not sure of themselves, but talking to someone else who has had some interesting experiences or they do things slightly different in another hospital or another association, that's a good experience for someone to talk with somebody else about and give them more confidence in what they're doing.

>>SINGER: And so it's like, it's a good opportunity to be part of a community?

>>McCALL: That's right.

>>SINGER: Community practice?

>>McCALL: A community practice.

>>SINGER: With regard to CME.

>>McCALL: Right. And I've discovered, and this is almost coming naturally without me asking you for it, but some other providers, CME providers in New Mexico are coming to me for ideas and advice. I mean, I'm not offering it. I mean, I'm not going out there to offer it when they ask me but they're asking me, "Well, what are you going to do about this? There's a new requirement for opioid prescribing, how are you going to meet that need?" Or, "What have you been doing?" And I say, "Well, I partner with another organization. They already have the education there."

>>SINGER: Sure.

>>McCALL: All you have to do is just partner with them.

>>SINGER: Right.

>>McCALL: Yeah.

>>SINGER: So it's fun to be looked to as an expert and as a resource.

>>McCALL: Yeah, and of course you can always learn yourself from other people, but sharing ideas back and forth, it's really a powerful, great thing to do, yeah.

>>SINGER: Thank you very much for being here.

>>McCALL: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you.