Labouré College’s IONM Program Earns CAAHEP Accreditation

Labouré College is proud to announce the recent accreditation of its Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) program by its accrediting body, the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. It is only the second program in the world to achieve accreditation, and the first at the certificate level.

Jacquelyn Polito, Department Chair of Neurodiagnostic Technology, and Margaret Barlow, IONM Program Director, said, “We are honored to announce that our program has become the first hybrid on-line IONM program to be granted CAAHEP accreditation. This accreditation is uniquely important because it begins to address the urgent need for standardized IONM programs in higher education. IONM is a rapidly growing field in need of skilled, educated professionals to improve patient safety in the operating room.”

A respected member of the operating team, the intraoperative neuromonitorist is a patient’s guardian angel in the operating room. The neuromonitoring team uses neurophysiological recordings to detect changes and assess the function of specific parts of the nervous system continuously when a patient is under anesthesia. With this data, neuromonitorists are able to immediately alert the surgeon if the patient is at risk. This has proven to reduce the risk of postoperative neurological deficit. Intraoperative neuromonitorists work exclusively in the operating room during a variety of procedures ranging from carotid endarterectomy to brain and spinal tumor resection to aneurysm clipping in the brain or thoracic abdomen.

The new IONM program is modeled from Labouré College’s own long-established and accredited Neurodiagnostic Technology Program. The IONM program launched in May 2016 and its first class completed the certificate in December 2016. Described by the site visitors as a team that has vast knowledge and promotes safety, compassion, and social conscience to accessible healthcare, the newly established and now accredited IONM program looks forward to future growth and expansion.

Labouré College is excited to be at the forefront of IONM education, with faculty and clinical instructors who are experts in the field with years of experience and research behind them. Learn more about our two-semester, predominately online program at http://www.laboure.edu/academic-programs/certificate-programs/intraoperative-neuromonitoring

For more information about CAAHEP and the accrediting process, please visit www.caahep.org 

About Labouré College: Labouré College is celebrating 125 years of nursing and healthcare education. Located in Milton, Massachusetts, the College is an accredited, private, non-profit, Catholic institution. Labouré has expanded its academic offerings to include cutting edge online programs in healthcare science. http://www.laboure.edu