PDA NEWSLETTER: APRIL 2021

• Featured PDA Provider
• PDA Dashboard & NCCAOM^® PDA Provider Digital Badge
• PDA Certificate & CE Banking Update
• Mentorship
• PDA Question of the Quarter

Mary Elizabeth Wakefield, MS, MM, Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM)^®, L.Ac.

NCCAOM PDA Provider #47

The PDA Department would like to congratulate NCCAOM Diplomate and PDA Provider, Mary Elizabeth Wakefield, as the featured Provider for the April 2021 issue. As you can see from the Provider number, Mary is one of our longstanding Providers since the inception of the PDA program. Mary’s background as a professional opera singer allowed her to have an extraordinary understanding of the importance of facial muscles which propelled her career within the acupuncture profession. Mary has over 35 years of experience and has developed her own protocol called “Facial Acupuncture: The Wakefield Technique^TM”. Aside from acupuncture, Mary is also skilled in vibrational energy and has expertly integrated tuning forks into her protocols for facial rejuvenation.

To read full article Click Here.

The PDA Department is excited to announce that the Provider Dashboard and Digital Badge are currently active within the PDA Provider Portal! The Dashboard is organized in a way so that our Providers can manage their certificate distribution process and retrieve the Digital Badge all within the same page at a click of a button.

Providers with active courses and approved certificate templates may now download the NCCAOM^® PDA Provider Digital Badge. The digital badge is an electronic logo, that can be posted to your website, resume, email, or any social media site where Diplomates and practitioners can learn about your efforts in continuing education. When clicked upon, the badge will provide information about your Providership and a link to a listing of your approved course(s). Check out Mary Elizabeth’s NCCAOM^® PDA Provider Badge here!

The new PDA Certificate distribution process first started in September 2019 and has been a huge success. From January 1^st to December 31^st, 2020, our Providers have sent over 93,000 certificates with Bulk Distribution as the most popular choice!

As you know, the PDA Certificate distribution process was implemented in different phases. Phase 1 set up the certificate distribution system. In Phase 2, Providers began to distribute the PDA Certificates from their online account. Now in Phase 3, CE Banking is being implemented where approved PDA points are automatically reported to the Diplomate’s NCCAOM^® Recertification Transcript at the time the PDA Certificate is distributed by the PDA Provider. Since PDA Providers are being incrementally added to CE Banking, we are proud to state that over 90% of our Providers are now activated with this feature!

We want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of our PDA Providers as these innovations would not be possible without you! Because of your hard work in learning this new system, the Diplomates are ecstatic that they no longer must manually upload their PDA Certificates into their Certification Portal.

We are seeing a rise in mentorship programs recently with our Providers. The NCCAOM defines ‘Mentorship’ as an interactive program between a student or recent graduate of an acupuncture program (mentee) who partners with an experienced acupuncturist (mentor) to provide guidance through an informal professional relationship. Communication is one-to-one between the mentee and mentor via phone, email, the internet, or written communication.

The NCCAOM has worked with the American Society of Acupuncturists (ASA) to review offering PDA points for their new Mentorship Program. Because a mentorship is a professional relationship between two individuals that communicate one-to-one over time, it is the NCCAOM’s decision that the mentee may earn NCCAOM PDA points for recertification in the Professional Enhancement section under the Clinical Experience Activity. The mentor may earn NCCAOM PDA Points under the Clinical Supervision Activity (NCCAOM® Recertification Handbook, pg. 13, pg. 15). At the time of renewal, all approved courses with ‘Mentorship’ in the title will be reviewed by the PDA staff on a case-by-case basis. If you would like more information about mentorship programs, feel free to reach out to ASA for their criteria and requirements.

January Winner: Julie Shivley, Provider #9126 of Vital Health Resources, Inc.

Question: How many weeks does it take for a course application to go through the PDA review process? The answer: 4 to 6 weeks.

Congratulations, Julie!

April Question:  

In the PDA Tool Kit, what document helps a Provider find the name and ID number of a Diplomate?  

Enter a raffle drawing for a chance to win a free spot in the new NCCAOM^® PDA Course Highlights by answering the “PDA Question of the Quarter”:

Submit Your Entry Here

Hint: All answers to the PDA Question of the Quarter can be found on the NCCAOM website.

Since the inception of the online
certificate distribution system, Providers have distributed
over 118,732 PDA Certificates!

by Samantha Whitehorne, the Editor of Associations Now Daily Newsletter, introduces different ways to ensure participant’s safety and is a great resource for Providers who are planning to hold in-person event(s).