Best Practices for Writing CME Needs Assessments: 2017 Survey Results

Here is a screen snip of the poster we displayed at the annual meeting of the American Medical Writers Association in Washington, D.C. Send me an email (harting [at] nccn.org) to request the PDF. File size = 820 KB.

We will be presenting results of our 2018 survey (N=104) at the annual meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions at National Harbor, Maryland, in January.

Fall Fashion Trend: CME Poetry

Image courtesy https://www.williamshakespeare.net/

Derek wrote a haiku, Scott wrote a limerick, so I wrote a sonnet. (Sorry, Bill.)


SONNET 18A

Shall I compare thee to the best NA?
Thou art more lovely, and more literate.
Rough gaps do gape in clinical practice today,
Our reference lists fall so quickly out of date.

Sometime too long-winded the writer doth blow,
And oft are grammar and spelling errors found;
Commercial bias and unfair balance mar the flow
Of flimsy evidence arrayed to support gaps unsound.

But thy eternal beauty shall not fade
Nor lose possession of nationwide best practices aggregated,
Thine outcomes data so impressively displayed
And thine educational needs so skillfully articulated.

    So long as fingers can write or eyes can see,
    So long should we share best practices in CME.



Poet's note: Our fifth annual survey of best practices for writing needs assessments remains open through 11:59 PM Friday, October 19.

Here's the link.

Calling All Experienced CME Writers

Graphic courtesy of The AMWA Journal

We’d like your insights on the best way to write an educational needs assessment (NA). The annual survey on best practices will remain open until Friday, October 19. All respondents will receive the raw results by November 30. Here's the link.

Co-investigators for this year's survey are Andrew Bowser, ELS, CHCP, of Narberth, Pennsylvania and Donald Harting MA, MS, ELS, CHCP, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania (the author of this blog post).

Every survey since 2014 has contained 10 questions. While some are repeated to track trends, this year new questions address where to find quotations from patients, whether non-peer reviewed materials belong in your reference list, and any unprofessional practices you may have noticed in NAs written by others. We are repeating questions about sources of evidence, charts and graphics, the patient perspective, and certain bread-and-butter details that all professional writers and editors care about such as lead time, word length, and pricing (if applicable). If you have written at least several needs assessments, please consider answering the questionnaire.

Analyzed results will be presented at professional meetings of medical writers and continuing educators. For example, a poster abstract with 2017 data has been accepted for display at the annual meeting of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) in Washington D.C. next month. A similar poster, featuring 2018 data, has been accepted for display at the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions in National Harbor, Maryland, in January of 2019.

In recent years, data from this annual series of surveys have been incorporated into a variety of posters, journal and newsletter articles, and workshops. Links to a handful of these resources are shown below. 

Workshop slide deck delivered at AMWA annual meeting in 2017.

Poster displayed at Mid-Atlantic Alliance for CME in 2016.

Journal article published in The AMWA Journal in 2016.

Mini tutorial for AMWA members published in 2015.

Workshop slide deck delivered at Alliance annual meeting in 2015.

If you are interested in even more information, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post (comments are moderated) or send an email to Don(at)hartingcom.com.

Honing My Leadership Skills

In recent years as a medical writer specializing in continuing education I have mostly worked alone. In anticipation of being asked to lead a small group of co-workers in carrying out a formal research study, I am reviewing basic principles of leadership, beginning with what I learned as a Boy Scout.

 

The colorful graphic above, called a learning map, was created using an online   application called GoConqr in the style made famous by Tony Buzan, as described in more detail here. The graphic was completed as a homework assignment for EDT 500, an introductory course in educational technology at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The content shown here is adapted from a pamphlet written for novice patrol leaders and published online by the Boy Scouts of America.


 

New Concept: CME Shark Tank

At a breakout session during the recent annual meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions in Orlando, Florida, the idea of a Shark Tank-like format for an educational workshop was proposed. Here is a simple concept sketch of how the program might be set up, modeled after the popular reality show on ABC-TV. This sketch was done using a free online concept mapping application available at: https://bubbl.us/

Concept for a Shark Tank-like CME program.

Designing Workplace Learning Interventions

So there's this learning and development consultant named Clive Shepherd. He has a blog on Blogger called Clive On Learning, where he writes about various applications of media and technology to learning at work. Way back in late 2013 Mr. Shepherd wrote a series of posts about designing workplace learning interventions. One post in particular was about something called PIAF, which stands for preparation, input, application, and follow-up. Apparently if you follow this model you'll get better results. Here is what each of the letters stands for:

• Preparation: Helping the learner to prepare for a productive learning experience.
  
• Input: Providing the formal element which hopefully will inspire the learner and act as a catalyst for changes in behavior and on-going skills development.
  
• Application: Providing opportunities for the learner to test out new ideas and skills in the work environment.
  
• Follow-up: Helping the learner to continue the learning journey using on-demand content, coaching and support from peers.