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Download the article PDF: Calling All Clinicians To Join The Colleges
With great excitement—and in full disclosure—I am writing this as the newly elected President of the College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM) and Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP). It is truly a pleasure to have been elected during the most recent Urgent Care Conference this past April in Chicago, and I look forward to leading these organizations for the next 2 years.
Now I am calling all urgent care clinicians—nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants/associates (PAs), and physicians—to become members of the Colleges. We are the professional organizations of urgent care clinicians, and we want to represent you not just within urgent care but across the entire healthcare field!
Who Can Join The Colleges
CUCM is open to all urgent care clinicians. Our mission is to elevate urgent care medicine through clinical care, education, collaboration, and advocacy for clinicians and patients.
UCCOP is open to all urgent care physicians. Our mission is to advance the specialty of urgent care medicine through research, education, clinical leadership, and support of physicians. All physician members of CUCM are automatically members of UCCOP. The Colleges work hand in hand to do this incredible work!
Additionally, CUCM and UCCOP are affiliate organizations of the Urgent Care Association (UCA). We work collaboratively with UCA and are grateful for its substantial support of our efforts and missions.
Enterprise organizations can also be members of UCA. If you are a clinician who works for a UCA member organization, then you are automatically a member of CUCM as an individual benefit recipient. Check your membership status by going to the UCA website (urgentcareassociation.org) and clicking the “Profile Log In” button in the upper right. To ensure you are in our database, click the area that says “Not sure if you have a login?” and the “Get Started” button. You can also become an individual member with the “Profile Log In” button.
As urgent care is a complex field of medicine that includes both clinical care and operational functions, we cannot move things forward without all of us working together. Ensure that you are a member!
Our Strategic Goals
The Colleges have 4 strategic goals for the next 5 years:
- Establish urgent care as a recognized medical specialty
- Deliver comprehensive, high-value urgent care medical education
- Advance urgent care medicine through original research
- Grow and engage a committed clinical urgent care community.
To establish urgent care as a recognized medical specialty, we plan to advance national specialty recognition pathways for physicians and NPs/PAs. We will also formalize and sustain relationships with key medical, physician, NP/PA, and accreditation organizations. In terms of influence, we will create and support urgent care specialty interest groups, caucuses, and advocacy opportunities. And to extend our voice, we will increase urgent care representation and leadership visibility within external stakeholder organizations.
To deliver comprehensive, high-value urgent care medicine education, we plan to develop and maintain a curated library of evergreen clinical and leadership education. We will also expand and differentiate CUCM-led clinical education within the annual UCA Conference. We’re going to improve organization, accessibility, and transparency of CME offerings and tracking. We will also increase awareness and utilization of clinical practice guidelines and recorded education. Finally, we will leverage education analytics to continuously improve our relevance, reach, and value.
To advance urgent care medicine through original research, we plan to facilitate and publish validated, urgent-care-specific research results. We will establish stewardship guidelines and clinical standards that are informed by research. To support this important work, we will secure diversified funding for independent urgent care research and expand data-sharing capabilities and clinical dashboards to enhance benchmarking. Additionally, we will increase the visibility and citation of urgent care research in academic and public forums.
To grow and engage a committed clinical urgent care community, we plan to increase membership and conference participation through clearer articulation of member value. We will create structured leadership and volunteer pathways, including expanded NP/PA opportunities. We will strengthen committee engagement through clearer entry points, expectations, and recognition. We will incentivize participation through badges, discounts and visible recognition of our members. Finally, we will deliver insights and tools that reinforce the return on investment in membership in the Colleges.
Our Community
We need our urgent care clinician “village” because it takes a village to support each other as we work together to advance our goals. There are tens of thousands of clinicians practicing urgent care medicine who should be represented by the Colleges. In many clinical settings, we are solo clinicians seeing patients; however, in reality we have a very large group of clinicians with whom we can collaborate, support, encourage, and develop.
Let the Colleges be that community and village for you. Come and join us, the professional organizations for urgent care clinicians! Become a member and get involved today!
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