The Journal of continuing education in the health professions
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2005
Continuing medical education reform for competency-based education and assessment.
The development of competency-based education and evaluation for residents and practicing physicians by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), respectively, includes the competency of practice-based learning and improvement. Efforts to implement this and the other competencies have been a powerful stimulus for continuing medical education (CME) reform, the goal of which is to improve the outcomes of care. The ABMS member boards and their counterpart specialty societies, members of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), have formed dyads to set standards and provide education to that end. ⋯ To implement them will be a major challenge. The CME community must consider the need to provide CME across the major health professions to address the fact that most care is delivered within systems composed of many health professionals. The use of microsystems as a model for the delivery, study, and validation of this interdisciplinary CME holds great promise.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2005
The CME professional: challenges and opportunities in reforming CME.
A rationale for reforming and repositioning continuing medical education (CME) is featured in this article. As envisioned by the Conjoint Committee Report on CME and presented in other literature, the CME professional is defined, along with requisite CME professional competencies. Perspectives of CME professionals regarding the Maintenance of Certification program are presented, with a focus on requirements for physician self-assessment and lifelong learning and continuous practice improvement.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2004
ReviewImplementing clinical guidelines: current evidence and future implications.
One of the most common findings from health services research is a failure to routinely translate research findings into daily practice. Previous systematic reviews of strategies to promote the uptake of research findings suffered from a range of methodologic problems that have been addressed in a more recent systematic review of guideline dissemination and implementation strategies. Changes in practitioner behavior; in the desired direction, were reported in 86% of the comparisons made. ⋯ Overall, there is an imperfect evidence base for decision makers to work from. Many studies had methodologic weaknesses, and reporting of this kind of research is generally poor, making the generalizability of study findings frequently uncertain. A better theoretical underpinning of studies would make this body of research more useful.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2004
ReviewInternet continuing education for health care professionals: an integrative review.
The objective was to review key articles and research studies on practices, preferences, and evaluation of on-line continuing education used by health care professionals. ⋯ Although the Internet is an effective and satisfactory educational format, barriers to use of the Internet for CE still exist. Additional studies are needed to measure the impact of Internet CE on practice performance, reduce barriers to on-line CE, and identify appropriate theoretical frameworks for on-line learning.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2004
The role of educational theory in continuing medical education: has it helped us?
Despite the existence of many approaches to understanding learning and change and attempts to incorporate these into continuing education research and practice, the search continues for a comprehensive understanding of how learning is engendered in professional practice and the processes by which learning and change occur. This article considers four broad questions in relation to the practice of continuing education: (1) What can be expected of theory? (2) How does theory relate to the educational practice of those in continuing education and the goals of continuing medical education ? (3) How have practice and theory mutually informed our current understandings? (4) How can theory serve the field more effectively in the future? Broad orientations to understanding learning provide a framework for examining the contributions of theory and practice. ⋯ Newer understandings also are introduced. The article concludes by considering reasons as to why theory appears not to have served us better and by offering ways in which those in continuing education can ensure greater usefulness of theory while contributing to its continued development.