Effective Teaching Model in Continuing Medical Education Programs

Background and purpose: World Health Organization (WHO) considers continuing medical education (CME) as an urgent necessity. The purpose of this study was to provide an effective teaching model in CME programs. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 229 faculty members from medical universities in Iran participated. They had teaching experiences in the CME programs of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. They were selected using stratified random sampling method on the basis of their academic ranks. Data were collected using a researcher made questionnaire. After evaluating the content validity by panel of experts, 40 questions were selected. Structural validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by exploratory factor analysis in SPSS V20 and second order confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 22. Results: The KMO index was 0.877 and the significance level of Bartlett's test was 0.0009, indicating adequate data for exploratory factor analysis. According to varimax rotation, five factors (methods) were determined, including lectures (8 items), questions and answers (8 items), group discussions (8 items), panel discussions (8 items), and case studies (8 items). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that group discussions (0.80), panel discussions (0.68), questions and answers (0.64), lectures (0.61), and case studies (0.38) were effective in explaining the methods effective in CME (P <0.05). Conclusion: Giving lecture was found to be the most common and popular method among the lecturers in CME programs in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. According to this study, combination of different educational methods, including lectures, questions and answers, and group discussions would be more appropriate.