Bringing continuing medical education to the bedside: the University of California, San Francisco Hospitalist...

As a relatively new generalist specialty, hospitalists must acquire new competencies that may not have been taught during their training years. Continuing medical education (CME) has traditionally been a mechanism to meet training needs but often fails to apply adult learning principles and fulfill current demands.

We developed an innovative 3-day course called the University of California, San Francisco Hospitalist Mini-College (UHMC) that brings adult learners to the bedside for small-group learning focused on content areas relevant to today's hospitalists. The program was built on a structure of 4 clinical domains and 2 clinical skills labs. Sessions about patient safety and immersion into traditional academic learning vehicles, such as morning report and a morbidity and mortality conference, were also included. Participants completed a precourse survey and a postcourse evaluation.

Over 5 years, 152 participants enrolled and completed the program; 91% completed the pre-UHMC survey and 89% completed the postcourse evaluation. Overall, participants rated the quality of the UHMC course highly (4.65; 1-5 scale). Ninety-eight percent of UHMC participants (n = 57) in 2011 to 2012 reported a "high" or "definite" likelihood to change practice, higher than the 78% reported by the 11,447 participants in other UCSF CME courses during the same time period.

The UHMC successfully brought participants to an academic health center for a participatory, hands-on, and small-group learning experience that was highly rated. A shift of CME from a hotel conference room to the bedside is feasible, valued by participants, and offers a new paradigm for how to maintain and improve hospitalist competencies.