Continuing medical education: viewpoints of Canadian psychiatric residents

Continuing Medical Education (CME), relicensure and recertification are controversial issues for physicians today. The viewpoints of 142 Canadian psychiatric residents from 12 training centres across Canada were surveyed. The majority (73%) of the residents did not think that CME would pose a problem for them after certification. In fact, a large majority (77%) felt CME should be required after certification. Close to half of the residents favoured monitoring of CME by the Canadian Psychiatric Association. In contrast to these results, few favoured mandatory recertification. A formal relicensure examination was strongly repudiated. Individual reading and self-assessments as well as clinically oriented courses and workshops were the favoured methods of CME. Our recommendations arising from this survey are threefold. CME should remain a voluntary activity. The Canadian Psychiatric Association should be the monitoring body for CME for psychiatrists, and finally, individual readings and self-assessments should be used increasingly in providing CME.