A Framework for Engaging Healthcare Professional Trainees as Continuing Education Activity Planners and Speakers

ABSTRACT

Health professional education and post-graduate training programs, including residencies, fellowships, and other post-graduate training experiences, may encourage or require trainee participation in continuing education (CE) activity planning and development. Providers of CE should ensure appropriate mentorship and faculty guidance during development of the activity and provide direction on the expectations of adult learning principles (e.g. identification of an educational gap; development of measurable learning objectives; inclusion of independent, balanced, and evidenced-based content; use of active learning techniques; and incorporation of learning assessment methods). Nonetheless, there is no established best practice or approach for how CE providers should ensure trainees are prepared to serve as CE activity faculty. New practitioners provided with an opportunity to participate may be unsure of where to begin and may be hesitant to engage in this new activity. In this manuscript, authors delineate key principles to incorporate when introducing trainees to CE activity development and share outcomes associated with a comparison of trainee- vs. faculty-developed and delivered CE.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuing education
• medical training
• health professional education
• faculty development

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Debra Diller, Continuing Education Office Staff at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, for her support of the Continuing Education activity of the unit and Elizabeth Ward, MSJ, Executive Director, Rutgers Center for Continuing and Outreach Education, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, for her leadership and guidance.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no financial interests or disclosures related to the content of this manuscript.