CME activities must be based on a need. This is defined as a Needs Assessment.  What this means is that the group at which the activity is directed must have a need for acquiring this knowledge. In even plainer English, Why should the learners care and bother to participate? 

There are many ways in which needs can be assessed.  Some examples are:

• Surveys and prior activity evaluations.
• Discovery of a new treatment or therapy.
• Public health data, chart audits, and current events.
• Self assessment.
• Government mandates and specialty society guidelines.

This is why we ask you to write out how you determined your needs assessment. Simply stating that there is a great need for CME is not a needs assessment. It is a generic platitude.

 

From the needs assessment a set of objectives should be compiled about what the learner is supposed to learn. To have this be a useful activity learning objective(s) must be:

• Clear.
• Measurable.
• Learner oriented.

More specifically, for the section regarding learning objectives, bear in mind what the participants should be able to do by the end of the session. Since the objectives should be specific and measurable, behavioural verbs are to be utilized. General verbs such as understand, appreciate, know, become, learn should not be used.  For the purposes of the majority of our CME events, participants would be evaluated in 1 or 2 major domains: cognitive (thinking) and psychomotor (doing). 

 Appropriate verbs to use for cognitive goals: define, diagnose, discuss, evaluate, compare, demonstrate, describe, explain, interpret, differentiate, apply, summarize, formulate, contrast, assess, design

Appropriate verbs to use for psychomotor goals: display, manipulate, arrange, perform, create, operate, adapt, write

Here are a few examples of learning objectives related to various CME events:

Participants will be able to:

• Evaluate hip and knee injuries, and design an appropriate treatment plan for rehabilitation, utilizing information from new evidence-based medicine.
• Describe the medicinal use of honey from ancient to modern times.
• Interpret thoracic x-rays utilizing a systematic approach.
• Demonstrate an ability to intubate an airway mannequin, while maintaining inline immobilization.
• Identify the major causes of hypertension and formulate an appropriate treatment plan for a case scenario.

At least 2 or 3 learning objectives should be written for each CME event and included in the accreditation application form.

 

You must then clarify what specific group(s) most has (have) this need which is defined by your needs assessment. This is then defined as your Target Audience . For example:

• What kind of physicians? Are they primary care physicians, Urologists, Ob-Gyn s, Dentists, nurses etc.?
• Are they health care providers who have been practicing a long time, or new practitioners?

We want to know how many individuals will participate in the meeting to see how likely you are to meet your learning objectives based on the type of teaching activities listed in your program. For example a hands-on workshop with 50 people won t be very successful.

You need to determine the best way to teach this material. Is it a lecture, workshop, hands-on teaching workshop or other method? This should be listed in your program. We look at your needs assessment and learning objectives to determine if the scheduled activities match. Sometimes we will ask additional clarification regarding the content of the sessions. We will also use your program to determine the number of CME credit hours. We need a detailed program for this to be accomplished.

We use this section to assess whether the individuals chosen to give the topics are able to provide this information. This is a fairly subjective assessment but we are particularly interested the speakers relationship to industry such as pharmaceutical companies who are often unable by employment to give an unbiased discussion of their topic area. 

We are very concerned that there is not a conflict of interest in the development of the program. Sponsorship by pharmaceutical companies or other members of the health care industry often come with strings attached . We want to be sure there is an arms length relationship between the sponsoring companies and the material presented.

Design an evaluation form, which will be completed by the participants. It is important to include 2 references to learning objectives on the evaluation form, such as: “Program objectives were well defined” and “Program objectives were met.” The participants must evaluate both of these points. 

  This evaluation can be in many forms, but it must be tied to the learning objectives.  Some examples of evaluation methods are:

• questionnaires                          
• tests
• review of patient data                
• focus groups

Evaluations are performed to:

• To find out if the objectives were met.
• To point out the activity s strong points and weak areas so that future activities can be improved.
• To get an idea of the type of programs that the audience would like in the future.

It is very important that only individuals who actually participate in the education sessions get credit for these activities. At a minimum, some mechanism for awarding partial credit for activities must be provided for day long activities. We are also interested in viewing a draft certificate. It is very important that the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences not be included as a sponsor of the meeting when it is only involved in accreditation of the program. Words such as This program is accredited for X CME hours by the Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development Committee of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is all that is sufficient to indicate our approval on certificates.

We want to know who else you have contacted for accreditation. If you have applied to many different organizations we would like to know why as it is rarely necessary for more than a single accreditation.

At a minimum, we expect a post-conference report that includes:

• Number of actual participants
• Final program
• Summary of evaluations and lessons learned for subsequent CME programs. Certificate of attendance

Additional feedback (e.g. minutes of a post-conference discussion by the steering committee) is also welcome.

Failure to provide this information within 30 days of the conference may result in a decision to not accredit subsequent CME events of your organization/group.

 

 

This is your chance to tell us anything else you wish us to know.