Health Professionals who renew license or certificates beginning next month will be under the rules that require Human Trafficking training with each renewal beginning 9/1/2020. 

Training Required 

Beginning September 1, 2020, certain health care practitioners who provide direct patient care must complete an approved human trafficking prevention training course for their license and certificate renewal. In order to satisfy the training requirement, the course must be approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. 

Health care practitioners are in a unique position to intervene in human trafficking, one of the most insidious and seemingly invisible public health challenges. This includes both labor and sex trafficking and may involve people of any age, gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, or sexual orientation. Victims and survivors of human trafficking may be seen at local clinics, emergency departments, or other medical settings and the health care team’s actions at that moment can make a life-saving difference. This training is meant to provide you with a variety of resources to inform and support planning for that critical response. 

Who Must Complete the Training? 

All Texas Medical Board licensees and certificate holders. 

When Does Training Have to be Completed? 

Prior to the renewal period for all TMB licensees and certificate holders. 

How Do I Take the Training? 

Training courses must be approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). 

Why Is This Happening? 

Human trafficking is a prevalent and global problem in Texas. In 2019, Texas had the second-highest reported cases of human trafficking, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. This is likely because Texas is a large, diverse state with a long international border. Texas law requires healthcare providers to be educated about human trafficking. Texas law also establishes processes for monitoring, ending, and preventing human trafficking. Our approved activity discusses trafficking in general but also goes into more specifics for Texas. This course will help all healthcare providers to identify and intervene in trafficking cases. 

AHEC’s Human Trafficking Prevention for Healthcare Personnel 

AHEC’s Human Trafficking Prevention course is taught by Damon Jackson, who has over 20 years of experience in classroom and hands-on instruction, over 15 years of experience in law enforcement, and has been a long-time faculty member at Advanced Health Education Center. Everyone who has attended a course presented by Damon knows about the passion and enthusiasm he brings to his courses, and he has created a comprehensive course that is both informative and captivating for all healthcare professionals.  Any medical professional can take this course because it is approved by HHSC and will satisfy the requirements set by the TMB for any health professional who is now required to have this training.  Our course is also approved for Category A credit and will count for 1.5 hours of CE for radiologic technologists, as well as Category 1 Credit™ for physicians, and is approved by the California Board of Nursing for nurses.

To learn more and register for our approved course, click here.