title: Does participation in CME SLG (small group learning) influence medical practice? The experience of general practitioners attending CME SLG after the introduction of the Medical Practitioners Act.
abstract: In Ireland, Continuing Medical Education (CME) for GPs is delivered by a national network of 37 tutors who coordinate learning sessions for between 2 and 5 small groups of physicians (SGL). Each group meets up to 8 times per year; 1100 to 1700 doctors attend CME-SGL nationally each month, with numbers increased since the Irish Medical Practitioners Act. This study investigated whether CME-SGL improves clinical knowledge of doctors. A questionnaire was administered by 35 CME tutors at their scheduled meetings in November/December 2012; 1366 (96%) attendees responded. In total 1312 (97%) doctors reported that they want to improve their clinical practice, and 1143 (86.3%) agreed that CME had helped them to do so. Of these, 1041 (91.1%) doctors gave specific examples. This survey provides evidence of how CME-SGL has impacted on the knowledge, skills, attitudes, prescribing, use of investigations, and application of guidelines and audit of these Irish GPs.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dowling
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Finnegan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Collins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult