Efficacy of continuing medical education on knowledge of general practitioners

Abstract

Introduction: Continuing medical education (CME) is a necessary way to keep graduatedphysicians knowledge and practice up-to-date, thus, play an important role in improving health care.Several years after implementing these programs in the country of Iran, it is necessary evaluate theefficacy of these programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge of participants in CMEprogram before and after of CME programs.Materials and Methods: All general practitioners (GPs) who were participated in CME programsof the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (Sari, Iran) in the spring of 2006 entered in thestudy. A self directed and multi choice questionnaire was designed to seek demographic characteristicsand knowledge of them about titles by programs. Its reliability was evaluated by internal consistencyand validity by attending. The questionnaires were distributed before and after of each program. Datawas analyses by SPSS and paired T- test.Results: From 300 participates, 235 persons were completed the questioner (q) (responserate=78%). The mean points of ENT q before and after program was 9.15±1.95 and 9.75±1.61,respectively (total point 20). In addition , these mean points were 9.85 ±2.29 and 10.22 ±1.79 (total18) for general surgery, 11.79±2.65 and 14.12±3.38 (total 23) for psychiatry, 6.48±2.55 and 8.52±3.3(total 19) for ophthalmology, 5.83±2.39 and 9.07±2.53 (total 17) for urology, and 7.79±2.11 and10.68±2.54 (total 24)for dermatology.Conclusion: The mean scores of knowledge of GPs were low and CME programs could notimprove it, therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the contents and methods of CME programs forimproving knowledge of general practitioners.

Keywords

• Continuing Medical Education
• Knowledge
• General practitioner
• Efficacy