Orange
County Urological Society CME Mission Statement
Preamble:
The Continuing Medical Education Committee
of the Orange County Urological Society is charged with the
oversight of all of the Society’s Continuing Medical
Education (CME) programs. The Continuing Medical Education
Program at Orange County Urological Society supports the overall
mission of the Society by providing and evaluating CME activities
that achieve measurable educational results of the highest
value to the practice of medicine.
Mission
Statement:
The mission of the CME Committee of
the Orange County Urological Society shall be to formulate
educational activities consistent with the accreditation standards
which serve to maintain, develop or increase knowledge, improve
clinical skills and professional performance of physicians
in order to provide and improve the quality of patient care.
Goals:
Under the direction of Orange County
Urological Society’s Continuing Medical Education Committee,
they shall:
a. maintain accreditation through the California Medical Association
for the provision of Category educational activities.
b. remain informed of current accreditation standards and
other CME issues in which a representative of the CME Committee
or CME coordinator shall attend the Annual CME Provider Conference
of the California Medical Association.
c. plan all CME activities by determining the need for the
activities and by setting educational objectives.
d. provide educational activities and program planning free
of commercial influence.
e. shall annually assess its effectiveness in accomplishing
the goals of the CME mission.
Scope:
The CME activities shall extend to
the members of Orange County Urological Society and to physicians
in the surrounding communities of Orange County. Activities
may include quality improvement, socio-economic topics, and
public health issues.
Audience:
Appropriate CME activities shall be
developed for primary care physicians as well as for specialty
and subspecialty physicians. When appropriate, allied health
personnel, resident physicians and medical students shall
be invited to participate in these activities.
Activities:
The activities shall consist of dinner
meetings which are usually one to two hours in length and
often employ a variety of teaching techniques. Often, the
activity is centered on didactic lectures, panel discussions,
and PowerPoint demonstrations.
a.
Educational Goals: Each activity approved for Category 1 CME
credit must have educational objective.
b. Needs Assessment: The need for CME content may be determined
by suggestions from our members by use of an evaluation form,
needs assessment forms or by member survey. Our CME evaluation
forms have space reserved for physicians to recommend topics
for future programs. The OCUS constantly encourages the membership
to recommend topics of need.
c. Evaluation: A standard CME evaluation form must be completed
and signed for all approved Category 1 CME activities.
Outcome Measurement Plan:
The Orange County Urological Society (OCUS) employs a number of techniques to assess the outcomes of our educational activities. The type of technique we use will depend on the educational format of a continuing medical education (CME) activity and the level of outcome that we are aiming to assess.
Level 1: Participation-Reaction of the student: What they thought or felt about the learning, training
Level 2: Learning-The resulting increase in knowledge of capability
Level 3: Behavior-Extent of behavior or capability improvement: implementation and application in practice.
Level 4: Results-The overall effect of the learning on a physician practice, healthcare in the community.
All of our activities are assessed for Levels 1, 2 and 3. Our standard activity evaluation which asks participants to rate their level of satisfaction with the activity (Level 1) and the degree to which they believe the learning objectives were met (Level 2) and pre/post tests, commitment to change ands urveys to measure behavior changes (Level 3). The results of outcome measurement not only provide information on the effectiveness of the activity for our learners, but also provide greater knowledge of one’s clinical practice gap.
Measurement of objectives achieved
Activity participants are tested based on the behavioral learning objectives established for a CME activity. For example, one of the objectives might be – “At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to list three of the currently approved statin drugs.” As part of the evaluation form, participants would be asked to actually list three of the currently approved statin drugs. In the absence of a pre-test, there is no guarantee that the learning occurred as a result of the activity. Yet, this process demonstrates whether or not the objectives were achieved – important information for the faculty and CME staff. This method can be employed with live meetings, enduring and Internet-based CME activities.
Pre- and post-tests
Activity participants complete multiple choice questions concerning activity content before and immediately after a CME activity. This method measures learning that occurred as a result of the activity. The benefit of this type of measurement is that the participants, the faculty and the CME staff have immediate feedback regarding what learning has occurred (Level 3B measurement). This method may not necessarily predict retention of the learning or change in performance. Pre- and post-tests can be used in conjunction with live meetings, printed enduring materials and Internet-based CME activities.
Commitment to Change
Participants of live and enduring material activities are asked to write at least one change that they plan to make a change as a result of our activities (Level 3 measurement). It is found that a commitment to change may actually predict a change in practice.
Post activity surveys
Post activity surveys go further in measuring change by venturing into performance based change – the Level 3 outcome. Participants are asked, at the conclusion of a CME activity, to list three changes that they intend to make as a result of the activity. After 6 months of the CME activity, surveys will be sent to our CME activity participants and ask them if they have fully implemented, partially implemented or were unable to implement the changes they intended to make.
The limitation of this data is that it is self-reported. However, in the absence of actual observation of a physician’s performance in practice, this information serves as a surrogate marker that is indicative of actual change.
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