How to Get Your Coaching Accredited for CME
Coaching has become one of the most dynamic ways healthcare professionals learn and grow—whether it’s leadership coaching, lifestyle medicine coaching, or physician wellness programs. For many clinicians, these experiences are far more impactful than a traditional lecture or online course.
But while coaching can be transformative, it’s not always recognized as formal education—unless it’s accredited for Continuing Medical Education (CME) or Continuing Education (CE) credit. Accreditation not only validates your coaching program’s educational quality, but it also makes it eligible for participants to apply CME funds or CME allowance toward it.
If you’re a coach (or a clinician offering coaching) and want to make your program eligible for CME credit, here’s what to know about how accreditation works, how to prepare your content, and what steps to take next.
Understanding CME Accreditation
What is Continuing Education?
Continuing education (CE) and continuing medical education (CME) refer to structured learning activities that help professionals stay current, build skills, and improve patient care. These can range from online modules and conferences to case discussions and—more recently—coaching.
For physicians and other clinicians, accredited CME activities carry credit that counts toward licensure, certification, or professional maintenance.
Interested in offering CE Credits for your Educational Activities?
Pinnacle offers Joint Provider services to non-accredited hospitals, private practices, medical societies and education partners in order to offer CE credits.
Learn more about accrediting your contentImportance of Accreditation in Continuing Education
Accreditation ensures your content meets recognized educational and ethical standards. It shows that your program is:
Free from commercial bias
Educationally valuable (based on identified professional gaps or needs)
Properly evaluated (participants’ learning and feedback are measured)
When your coaching is accredited, participants can claim CME or CE credit and—importantly—use their institution’s CME allowance to pay for it.
Types of Accreditation Bodies
The accrediting body depends on your target audience:
Physicians: Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
Nurses: American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
Physician Assistants: AAPA (accepts certain ACCME-accredited CME)
Psychologists, pharmacists, and others: Have parallel CE frameworks
Learn at Pinnacle and other joint providers can help you navigate which body fits your audience best, as we’ve done for 50+ partners.
Preparing Your Coaching for Accreditation
Before starting the application, it’s essential to structure your coaching program like an educational activity. Accreditation reviewers look for more than good intentions—they evaluate educational design.
Setting Educational Objectives
Clear objectives are the foundation of accredited education. They should describe what participants will learn or do differently after your coaching. Use action verbs such as “analyze,” “implement,” or “evaluate.”
For example:
“Apply mindfulness-based communication strategies in patient care.”
“Develop an actionable plan to reduce physician burnout.”
Aligning Content with Accreditation Standards
CME programs must address a verified professional gap—something your learners need to know or improve on. When you design your coaching, think about:
What problem are you helping clinicians solve?
How does your content relate to patient outcomes, system efficiency, or clinician well-being?
Are you including evidence-based frameworks or current best practices?
Avoid anything that could be construed as product promotion or unbalanced advice—coaching should always remain free from commercial influence.
Designing Assessment and Evaluation Methods
Accrediting bodies require you to evaluate whether learning occurred. In coaching, that might include:
Pre- and post-assessment questions
Reflection exercises
Participant goal tracking over time
Session evaluations or progress summaries
Even qualitative feedback (e.g., “What did you apply in your practice this month?”) can demonstrate educational impact when structured thoughtfully.
What Counts as “Education” in Coaching?
- Structured learning, not casual conversation
Sessions must follow a defined curriculum, not open-ended coaching chats. - Objectives that map to skills or competencies
Accrediting bodies expect measurable change in knowledge, competence, or performance. - Evidence-based frameworks
Use current literature, validated models, or clinical guidelines where applicable. - Evaluation built in
Reflection prompts, check-ins, or assessments show learning occurred.
Steps to Get Your Coaching Accredited
Joint Providership
Most independent coaches and clinicians aren’t accredited CME providers themselves—and that’s okay. Through joint providership, you can partner with an accredited organization (like Pinnacle) that reviews, approves, and jointly provides your coaching under their accreditation.
This allows you to:
Maintain your brand and delivery style
Ensure compliance with CME requirements
Offer participants official CME/CE certificates
Joint providership is ideal for individuals or small businesses that only run a few educational activities per year.
Becoming an Accredited Organization
If you plan to offer multiple CME activities long-term (e.g., a coaching company or training institute), you may consider becoming an accredited organization.
However, the process is extensive:
You must apply directly to the accrediting body (like ACCME).
You’ll need to show ongoing compliance, internal quality controls, and annual reporting.
Accreditation fees and staff time are substantial.
For most coaching professionals, starting with joint providership makes sense before pursuing full accreditation.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| Joint Providership | Fast, affordable, flexible, no ongoing audits | Must partner with an accredited organization |
| Direct Accreditation | Full independence, long-term scalability | Complex, costly, ongoing compliance and reporting |
CE/CME-Eligible Coaching Topics
Here are some topics that would be eligible for CME - theese aren't exhaustive, but should help you to see what sort of education ACCME are looking to accredit:
- Leadership and team dynamics: Improves communication and patient safety.
- Physician wellness and burnout mitigation: Ties directly to workforce sustainability and patient outcomes.
- Lifestyle medicine and behavior change: Supports better chronic disease management.
- Quality improvement and efficiency: Helps clinicians reduce errors and system delays.
Challenges and Tips
Common Challenges in Coaching Accreditation
Blending education with personal development: Coaching often focuses on mindset, leadership, or communication—topics that may seem “soft.” The key is framing them in measurable, professional terms.
Documenting outcomes: Accrediting bodies want evidence of learning, not just satisfaction. Consider structured reflection, follow-up surveys, or progress milestones.
Avoiding promotional content: If your coaching ties to a specific product, platform, or paid upsell, you’ll need to separate those activities from the accredited portion.
Tips for a Successful Accreditation Process
Start with learning outcomes: Build your sessions backward from what participants should achieve.
Keep good documentation: Track needs assessments, objectives, disclosures, and evaluations—your joint provider will need these.
Leverage hybrid models: Both virtual and in-person coaching can qualify, as long as they maintain educational structure.
Plan early: Accreditation review takes time—start the process at least 6–8 weeks before your program launches.
Partner strategically: Work with an experienced CME partner who understands coaching-based education and can translate it into accreditor language.
Example: Turning a Coaching Session Into CME
A physician wellness coach runs a six-week program on stress management. By adding clear objectives, weekly reflection prompts, and a final action plan evaluation, the series becomes eligible for CME credit through joint providership.
Final Thoughts
Accredited coaching bridges the best of both worlds: the personal, transformative nature of coaching and the professional credibility of formal continuing education.
Whether you’re helping physicians prevent burnout, teaching lifestyle medicine, or leading executive coaching for healthcare teams, CME accreditation validates your program’s rigor—and expands its reach.
If you’re ready to explore accreditation for your coaching program, Pinnacle can guide you through the process—from structuring your curriculum to issuing certificates.
Interested in offering CE Credits for your Educational Activities?
Pinnacle offers Joint Provider services to non-accredited hospitals, private practices, medical societies and education partners in order to offer CE credits.
Learn more about accrediting your content