What works in medical education, where and why?

Abstract

Benassi and Sockalingam argue that it is critical to understand the key ingredients of an intervention along with factors that influence implementation if we are to tanslate medical education research into practice.

Facilitators, Barriers and Motivators of Paramedic Continuing Professional Development

“…Paramedics are shift-workers who experience fatigue from workload and staffing shortages in some metropolitan and rural areas (1), therefore it was not surprising that the responses from the participants in this study mirrored those of other health professionals. Interestingly, time was described as a facilitator by paramedics, which is the opposite of what is generally reported in the literature for other healthcare professionals (3)(4)(5)(6)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). Working in rural or remote areas with a low case load provided an ability to engage in online CPD or self-directed study, uninterrupted while on shift.…”

“…Conversely, there are factors that can act as barriers to paramedics being able to feel that they can fully engage in CPD opportunities. Healthcare professions including medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, sonography, ophthalmology and pharmacy commonly report barriers to their engagement in CPD (3,8,11,14,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) (Table 2). A balance between facilitators and barriers to CPD can often be found in the factors that motivate a professional to engage in professional development activities.…”

Continuing Medical Education Delivery Preferences Among Physicians and Advanced Practice Providers in Emergency Medicine

“…While video and audio lead the way on CME consumption, our understanding of how these modalities work is lagging. If to optimize learning, we are to carefully analyze the nature of the content to be learned and its relation to the preferred technology characteristics [ 9 ], we must invest significantly in research that examines these delivery modalities to determine what learning environments provide appropriate knowledge translation [ 10 ]. Further, we must consider a broader approach to designing a digital CME curriculum based on our current understanding of the nature of human learning [ 10 ].…”

“…If to optimize learning, we are to carefully analyze the nature of the content to be learned and its relation to the preferred technology characteristics [ 9 ], we must invest significantly in research that examines these delivery modalities to determine what learning environments provide appropriate knowledge translation [ 10 ]. Further, we must consider a broader approach to designing a digital CME curriculum based on our current understanding of the nature of human learning [ 10 ]. For example, including opportunities for the listener to pause to answer a question can increase knowledge retention when listening to a podcast [ 11 ].…”

Categorising and enhancing the impacts of continuing professional development to improve performance and health outcomes

“…Lessons from a recent systematic review on the effectiveness of online spaced education pedagogy on learners’ uptake and retention of new information and changes to clinical practice and patient outcomes are important in understanding ‘why the intervention works in specific settings and what components of the intervention are responsible for the effect’ . Organisations that have identified a gap should consider utilising multiple sequenced educational formats to support physicians who require new evidence to enhance or undo past learning or embrace new practice strategies.…”