PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R D Fox

Publications and source records attributed to R D Fox.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

New horizons for research in continuing medical education.

Research must investigate the three overlapping areas of continuing medical education: it must discover and document what, how, and why physicians learn and change; how better programs of education can be designed to fit into this process; and in what ways the organizations that provide CME can or should differ in their policies, procedures, and resources. In terms of physician learning, for example, the basic assumption must be that physicians are like other adults in the general ways they learn in voluntary settings, yet have specific differences from other professional groups and from their physician colleagues in other specialties. Making the changes necessary for informed medical practice depends on understanding the role of learning in changes--which in turn depends on CME research. But barriers hinder much-needed research: conducting CME research is seldom rewarded in medical centers; CME is usually not a highly valued component of the institution; funding sources are few and support is limited; and persistent debate over the relative merits of qualitative and quantitative methods diverts energy that should be going into productive, cooperative research. The urgency of needed changes in medical practice and organization may give the necessary impetus for interdisciplinary, collaborative CME research projects that will take a longer-term view of the effect of learning on physician change.

Education, Medical, Continuing↗
PubMed1984

Self-assessment of need, relevance and motivation to learn as indicators of participation in continuing medical education.

This study examined the validity of using physicians' self-assessed needs, relevance and motivation to learn about clinical topics as a means for setting objectives and priorities for continuing medical education (CME) programmes. In an initial survey family doctors were asked to rate their need, relevance and motivation to learn about 120 different clinical topics. Eight months later, the same population was sent a second mail survey asking respondents to indicate if they had learned about a set of sixteen topics taken from the initial survey and, if so, in what kind of learning activities. Eight of the sixteen topics were highly rated and eight were low rated in the initial survey. In terms of actual participation of family doctors, self-assessed motivation to learn exhibited a strong positive relationship with actual participation. Both self-assessed need and relevance were negative to only moderately positive in their association with actual participation. This evidence contributed to the value of using self-assessed motivation as an indicator of future participation of family doctors in CME and questioned the value of using self-assessed need and relevance as indicators of future patterns of participation.

Education, Medical, Continuing↗
PubMed1983

Developing medical student competence in lifelong learning: the contract learning approach.

How contract learning may be used in the introduction to clinical medicine is described, with the goal to develop and enhance self-directed learning skills and attitudes of first- and second-year medical students. Essential tasks associated with successful self-directed learning are cited, and the contract method is described as a means for providing medical students with the opportunity to practice these tasks in the study of gerontology. The procedures followed in the implementation of the contract learning method are described, and its impact on both need and to continue learning about ageing and skills in directing independent learning projects are analysed and discussed. In addition, the implications of early preparation for doctor's lifelong learning are discussed.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗