Questions asked by physicians as the basis for continuing education needs assessment

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Practice
• Information Science

Background:

• Identifying point-of-care clinical questions is crucial for healthcare professionals.
• These questions can inform continuing education (CE) needs assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify clinical questions asked by healthcare professionals at the point of care.
• To explore the utility of these questions for driving CE program development.

Main Methods:

• Collected 563 clinical questions from 28 clinicians using direct observation and self-reporting methods (email, text, pocket card).
• Classified questions by Ely taxonomy and specialty domain, assessing their priority (low, moderate, high).

Main Results:

• Most questions (65.8%) fell into 9 common categories, with primary care clinicians focusing on 70% within these.
• Frequent question types included treatment selection, drug indications, and etiology of symptoms.

Conclusions:

• Over two-thirds of physician questions align with five core competencies: cause of findings, test selection, prevention, treatment, and prognosis.
• Utilizing these questions as a needs assessment can lead to more targeted and effective CE programs, improving performance and patient outcomes.