The Journal of continuing education in the health professions
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2008
Maintaining competence in the field: learning about practice, through practice, in practice.
Many of the assumptions about the "adult, self-directed learner" that form the basis of the current model of formal continuing education delivery are largely unsupported by the literature. Yet most practitioners maintain competence despite the apparent flaws in this model. After elaborating a set of problematic assumptions regarding the current construction of the self-regulating professional learner who uses formal continuing education to maintain competence, this paper explores another likely source for the learning that allows practitioners to engage in their own continuing professional development: the process of learning from their personal experiences of solving problems in their daily practice.
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MedEdPORTAL is an online publication service provided at no charge by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The intent is to promote collaboration and educational scholarship by helping educators publish and share educational resources. With MedEdPORTAL, users can quickly locate high-quality, peer-reviewed teaching materials in both the basic and clinical sciences. ⋯ More than 30 different countries access and utilize resources published and disseminated through MedEdPORTAL. The rapid growth of MedEdPORTAL suggests that it is meeting an important need for those in medical education. It is intended that MedEdPORTAL should continue to grow and eventually become the "one-stop shop" for publishing and locating high-quality, peer-reviewed educational resources that cover the continuum of medical education.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2008
Evaluating conflicts of interest in research presented in CME venues.
There is much in the literature regarding the potential for commercial bias in clinical research and in continuing medical education (CME), but no studies were found regarding the potential for bias in reporting original research in CME venues. This pilot study investigated the presence of perceived bias in oral and print content of research findings presented in certified CME activities. ⋯ While limited, by study design, this research detected subjectivity and variability in perceiving commercial bias within research findings presented in CME venues. Further study of these questions is required to guide the resolution of conflicts of interest in research and CME.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2008
Journal clubs and case conferences: from academic tradition to communities of practice.
As small group learning sessions, Journal Clubs (JCs) and Case Conferences (CCs), if structured interactively, have potential as educational formats that can change practice. However, the degree to which these formats, as currently typically structured, lead to practice change is unknown. ⋯ JCs and CCs can be structured with explicit intent to articulate learnings and facilitate implementation of learnings in practice. Further work is needed to validate the learning and barrier categories we identified, objectively verify short- and longer-term practice outcomes, explore the role of JCs and CCs in addressing barriers to learning, and facilitate sustainability of learning in practice.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2008
An interactive educational workshop to improve end of life communication skills.
An understanding of legal, ethical, and cultural concerns and an ability to communicate when faced with clinical dilemmas are integral to the end of life decision-making process. Yet teaching practicing clinicians these important skills in addressing conflict situations is not strongly emphasized. ⋯ An interactive workshop can be a valuable educational intervention for building capacity and confidence in end of life communication skills and ethical and legal knowledge for health care providers; further physician involvement is required to extrapolate results to this population.