The Emerging Role of Reinforcement in the Clinician's Path from Continuing Education to Practice

Continuing education (CE) activities may affect clinicians' knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and/or performance. Studies have suggested that self-efficacy may moderate or mediate the relationship between knowledge/competence and performance. Some results have shown that increases in knowledge/competence contributed to increases in self-efficacy. However, clinicians do not always learn something "new" when they participate in CE activities; rather, their knowledge or skills may be reinforced. This study examined whether self-efficacy was greater when clinicians reinforced what they already knew compared with when they learned something new.

Hierarchical linear modeling was conducted to examine the moderating role of status of knowledge/competence post-CE (reinforced/improved) in the relationship between post-CE knowledge/competence score and self-efficacy across 153 online continuing medical education- and/or CE-certified activities.

The hierarchical linear modeling showed that learners with higher post-CE scores have higher post-self-efficacy ratings. Reinforced learners had higher post-CE-self-efficacy ratings than improved learners, controlling for post-CE score.

This study contributes to an expanded understanding of the path from CE to practice. There was benefit to self-efficacy for learners who reinforced but did not improve their knowledge/competence. This study also suggests that pre-post questions can be considered part of the learning process.