Accreditation for learning and change: Quality and improvement as the outcome

Abstract

Increased accountability for facilitating and demonstrating the continued competence of physicians and improvements in the quality of health care are being called for by government, the public, and organized medicine. Areas of critical skills have been identified by the Institute of Medicine, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and the American Board of Medical Specialties. These "competencies" serve as the framework around which medical school curricula, residency programs, and continuing medical education (CME) can be built. Much discussion revolves around the reform of CME, and the organizations most involved have developed innovative plans and initiatives to ensure that CME is optimally positioned to support physicians in learning and change. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) supports a new and expanded role for the CME provider in physicians' lifelong learning, including periodic self-assessment and practice performance improvement. CME providers can assist in the determination of need (self-assessment) by the physician, the delivery of education to meet that need, and the evaluation of education used to meet the need, especially as it relates to the practice performance of the physician. The ACCME, working with accredited providers, has embraced these expectations and believes that CME can meet these challenges with an approach that also expects independence from commercial interests and freedom from commercial bias. The CME enterprise is uniquely positioned to deliver effective education for learning and change.

Self-assessment questionnaire for family doctors’ assessment of quality improvement competencies: a cross-cultural adaptation in Slovenia

“…Self-assessment is an integral part of many appraisal systems and has been proposed as an essential aspect of individual behaviour by several regulatory bodies and those developing learning outcomes for clinical students (2,3). Self-assessment can be used in various aspects of education and lifelong learning such as in achieving credits in continuous medical education (CME), in relicensing process and in assessing professional competencies (1,(4)(5)(6). Competence is viewed as an attainment of a static set of attributes rather than a dynamic process in which physicians continuously use their practice experiences to progress in a competence towards the attainment of expertise (7).…”

Measuring Continuing Medical Education Outcomes: A Pilot Study of Effect Size of Three CME Interventions at an SGIM Annual Meeting

“…The survey questions were administered to attendees at three time points: (1) shortly after the registration deadline for all who pre-registered (via an email link to a web-based questionnaire), (2) immediately following the CME activity (paper-pencil version of the questionnaire), and (3) nine months following the meeting (again via an email link). Questionnaires were completed anonymously.…”

“…1,2 We conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility of surveys measuring the impact of CME provided at the 2006 annual meeting on both short and long term educational outcomes.…”

Do Danish Maritime Doctors Value Continuous Education Initiatives?

“…Education and training contribute to better responsiveness and performance of the health professionals and lead to optimization of the services [10,11]. In addition, the doctors strengthen their skills to provide the patients with guidelines for modification of their behavioural choices and the self-management of their illness.…”