CZO Flex Level
A flexible and innovative system of basic and advanced programmes for nurses and medical-support healthcare professionals is the goal that the CZO Flex Level programme is working hard towards. The result: caregivers are efficiently trained, can more easily enter laterally and go through, and they are ready for tomorrow’s care demand.
The programme is an initiative of the NFU and NVZ (Dutch Hospitals Association). The new system will be transferred to the Care Programmes Board (CZO) in 2023. CZO accredits programmes and ensures their quality. With the CZO Flex Level programme, one of the agreements is implemented that the parties arranged in the Policy agreement for medical specialist care 2019 - 2022.
The care in the Netherlands is changing. Care is being provided in healthcare institutions, and increasingly in the patient’s home. A new demand for care is developing, to which healthcare professionals and institutions must respond. Together with trainers, they are providing a new interpretation of their professions, functions, powers and responsibilities.
For patients and clients, it is extremely important to have the right professionals available at the right moment who have been trained in the latest insights. Healthcare professionals want to be able to switch from one department to another more easily, or from one type of care provider to another – without having to follow another entire programme (advanced or otherwise). Sometimes a caregiver simply wants to expand his/her knowledge and skills by learning specific professional activities from a programme, but not all of them. Healthcare institutions can also benefit from flexible learning tracks. They want caregivers to learn specifically what is needed for the care demand of their patients or clients. They do not need to learn too much, but certainly not too little. In addition, healthcare institutions have the possibility to put their personnel quickly through refresher courses when the care sector changes. It is handy if caregivers can be exchanged between certain departments.
CZO Flex Level organises a faster and more flexible inflow of professionals who want to specialise or work in a medical-support function. They can keep pace with the changing demand for care and expand their career perspective flexibly and effectively.
In the past two years CZO Flex Level has developed the new system of advanced nursing programmes (VVO) and medical-support programmes (MOO). In the summer of 2020, their implementation was started. For example, 200 EPAs (Entrustable Professional Activities) were defined. EPAs are the characteristic professional activities involved in the daily work of a healthcare professional. Now the Basic Acute Care (BAZ) programme is also available.