Background: Much continuing medical education is known to have a limited impact on subsequent clinical behaviour. An option to improve this is to ask participants to develop specific actions about their clinical behaviour changes.
Methods: We aimed to investigate the content and outcomes of GPs' action lists produced on a one-day continuing professional development (CPD) course. Actions were recorded during a one-day course, and followed up six months later.
Results: Of 1696 delegates attending the nine courses, 306 (18%) provided their action plan and 139 of these responded to the questionnaire at six months (response rate 45%). The 306 delegates recorded a total of 1443 actions (4.7 per delegate). Of these, 359 were subsequently explored by follow-up questionnaire at six months of which 147 (41%; 95% CI 36%-46%) were 'successful', an average of completed actions of 1.9 per GP. Four significant facilitators and four significant barriers to success were identified.
Conclusions: Delegates attending the one-day CPD course recorded an average of 4.7 intended practice changes, and completed 41%. Further research is needed on how to increase the number of planned and completed actions.