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Clinicians' perceptions of learning through organized CPD and spontaneous teaching: An interpretive descriptive study
Nissim Maxim Frija-Gruman1, Yvonne Steinert2, Ning-Zi Sun2,3
1Department of Internal Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Medical Teacher
|May 7, 2026
Summary
Continuing professional development (CPD) and clinical teaching both enhance clinician learning. Teaching identifies knowledge gaps, while CPD reinforces new knowledge, creating a synergistic effect for professional development.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Physician Professional Development
Background:
- Didactic continuing professional development (CPD) activities often fail to improve clinical practice.
- Clinical teaching is a valuable work-based learning modality, but its comparison to organized CPD is understudied.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore clinician-teachers' perceptions of organized CPD activities versus clinical teaching as learning modalities.
- To understand how these two learning approaches compare and complement each other.
Main Methods:
- Semi-structured interviews with 22 clinician-teachers were conducted.
- Interpretive description and thematic analysis were used to analyze interview transcripts.
- Work-based learning served as the theoretical framework.
Main Results:
- Both CPD and clinical teaching facilitate learning, but in distinct ways.
- Organized CPD offers structured, topic-specific learning within a specialty.
- Clinical teaching yields practical knowledge gains both within and beyond the clinician's specialty, and reveals knowledge gaps.
Conclusions:
- Continuing professional development (CPD) and clinical teaching are synergistic learning modalities for clinicians.
- Recognizing the complementarity of these approaches can enhance the value of clinical teaching in physician lifelong learning.
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