Characteristics of Effective Continuing Medical Education for Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners in Hospital Medicine

J Physician Assist Educ. 2020 Mar;31(1):2-7. doi: 10.1097/JPA.0000000000000285.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe participant characteristics and effective teaching methods at a national continuing medical education (CME) conference on hospital medicine for physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants provided demographic information and teaching effectiveness scores for each presentation. Associations between teaching effectiveness score and presentation characteristics were determined.

Results: In total, 163 of 253 participants (64.4%) completed evaluations of 28 presentations. Many of the participants were younger than 50 years (69.0%), had practiced for fewer than 5 years (41.5%), and worked in nonacademic settings (76.7%). Teaching effectiveness scores were significantly associated with the use of clinical cases (perfect scores for 68.8% of presentations with clinical cases vs. 59.8% without; P = .04).

Conclusion: Many PAs and NPs at an HM CME conference were early-career clinicians working in nonacademic settings. Presenters at CME conferences in hospital medicine should consider using clinical cases to improve their teaching effectiveness among PA and NP learners.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Education, Continuing / organization & administration*
  • Hospital Medicine / education*
  • Humans
  • Learning
  • Middle Aged
  • Nurse Practitioners / education*
  • Physician Assistants / education*
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Teaching / organization & administration*
  • Young Adult