UW Suicide Prevention Course Meets Requirements for Medical Providers

As of July 1, all healthcare providers in Washington state are required to take an approved suicide-prevention course as part of their continuing education requirements. The intention of the Training in suicide assessment, treatment, and management law is to provide the necessary tools to medical providers for preventing and educating patients about suicide.

Healthcare providers can meet the new licensure requirements with All Patients Safe: Suicide Prevention for Medical Professionals. “All Patients Safe” was developed by UW Medicine and Forefront Suicide Prevention in partnership with Seattle Children’s, CoMotion and the VA. Made by and for medical professionals, the online training is highly interactive and offers an engaging and informative option for providers to become better skilled at suicide prevention. Perspectives of real patients coupled with practical skills help medical providers transfer what they learn to their practice and community. Members of the UWP practice plan can take the training for free.

At the end of the course, medical providers will:

- Understand their role in suicide prevention;

- Effectively educate patients about how to make their homes safer to prevent suicide, overdose, accidental poisonings and firearm-related fatalities;

- Feel confident to integrate suicide prevention skills into your practice and personal life;

- Learn how to integrate screening, assessment and safety tools into their practice setting;

- Develop a strategy to advocate for protocol and practice changes.

Registration

Participants need to register to begin training. All Patients Safe is hosted on UW Medicine’s Learning Management System (LMS) and will feel familiar. Once you are registered, you will receive a follow-up email containing additional instructions and a link to the training. You don’t need to complete all six hours of training at once. You may return to training at any time and resume at the point where you left off.

Reporting Requirements

The requirement for this training went into effect Jan 1, 2016, and every provider will have to attest to completion of the training after their next full reporting period. The earliest people will need to provide this attestation will be for licenses renewing Jan 1, 2018 or later. Please visit the Washington State Department of Health website Suicide Prevention Training for Health Professionals for more information.

Helping a Colleague at Risk

Because medical providers have higher rates of suicide than the general public, it’s important providers know what to do if they identify a colleague at risk. The training touches briefly on this issue, but providers should be aware of some helpful additional resources: