Innovations in the education of health professionals.

Abstract

Dramatic and unprecedented changes in health care have altered the health care landscape and have significant implications for health professions education. This issue of the NCMJ explores these changes and highlights innovative models across the health professions that are designed to prepare graduates to practice in the emerging health care system and to deliver high-quality care in a cost-effective manner. These new educational programs--which include training for future doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and various allied health professionals--aim to prepare providers to meet the needs of North Carolina communities, and they use new educational models to give graduates the competencies they need to practice in health care teams and to contribute in other ways to improved health outcomes for the people of the state.