How to Improve Physician Education Satisfaction for CE Directors

Do your CE courses consist of bored, low-engagement physicians just going through the motions? These days, more learners are viewing physician education as an enhancement to their skills, not a burden or tedious requirement.

But not all CME is created equal. Courses that simply transfer knowledge tend to receive lower learner satisfaction ratings than active and innovative physician education. Satisfaction with your CE courses drives renewed enrollment. If you provide CME within your network, a strong, compliant, and innovative program can also contribute to staff retention.

Let’s go over how to improve physician satisfaction within your CE courses.

Where is CE for physician education going?

ACCME’s 2018 report on CME documented over 1,760 providers that offered more than 179,000 activities. Over 85,000 physician education activities consisted of traditional CE courses, and 48,800 were internet-enduring materials. Regardless of when and how you deliver your physician education, your program should respond to adult learning needs. According to Knowles, adult learning theory incorporates the following principles:

• Results oriented
• Autonomous and self-directed
• Life experiences and knowledge
• Relevance and practicality
• A problem-solving approach

Since the early 2000s, physician education has been changing, both in med school and in ongoing CME for practicing physicians. Innovative programs can include case-based learning and reflective practice. Clinical-reasoning practices can also fuel more engaging courses that satisfy the physicians in your program.

Satisfied learners are engaged learners

Certain physician education programs have been successful in engaging participants in learning about condition screening, prescribing, and patient counseling about health practices, including smoking, dietary changes, and risky sexual practices. Cervero and Gaines found in their 2015 literature review of CME course impact that taking a strategic approach to physician education has evidence-based support.

If you can design your courses to engage physicians, they’ll automatically be more satisfied with their experience and want to repeat it. Whether you’re offering physician education within your enterprise/health system or are an independent provider, building courses that can satisfy your learners should be a top priority.

A strong LMS supports learner engagement

A learning management system (LMS) can be a powerful partner in supporting your physician education program. It can enable you to deliver education in diverse ways, including videos, podcasts, and webinars.

Physicians expect flexibility in your course offerings and ease of use. You can deliver compliant courses through an LMS that supports PARS-compliant reports and integration with ACCME web services. EthosCE accomplishes these tasks smoothly and efficiently.

You can also determine which of your courses is effectively engaging your physician learners and which ones may need improvement with EthosCE’s follow-up assessment instruments. Automate and streamline your compliance and administrative tasks with EthosCE so you can invest more time in developing innovative courses or revamping older courses that include critical information but could use a little help in course delivery or assessment.

What LMS functions can improve learner satisfaction?

EthosCE gives you reporting tools and analytics that track learner engagement. These 24/7 web-based tools can show you which learners are just “going through the motions” and help you refine and develop your course offerings.

You can also get help from EthosCE’s instructional design team. They can help you identify learning objectives and then design courses to achieve those objectives. A course’s content and learner engagement are the most important criteria in developing courses that will improve physician satisfaction, though professional production capabilities can also contribute to physician engagement and satisfaction. EthosCE offers educational design consulting and professional services, including access to:

• Actors
• Audio production
• Graphic design
• Instructional design and course delivery
• Studio and post-production facilities
• Video production
• Writing

Let EthosCE help you engage your physician learners

Medical knowledge grows so rapidly that it’s almost impossible for every physician to be on top of every new development, even within their specialties. Compliance requirements also continue to grow. Nearly everyone involved in healthcare education agrees that the ACCME’s Criterion 35 requirement for innovation in CME is essential. The requirements for new elements in CME need to be added during the same accreditation period.

EthosCE makes satisfying ACCME’s Criterion 35 simple from an administrative point of view. The elements you select to add innovation are more challenging, but they should come from knowledge of your physician learners. What program elements have engaged them in the past? Which courses have higher levels of physician satisfaction?

A strong LMS gives you the data you need to make the right choices in how to design and deliver your physician education courses. Whether you’re implementing new forms of course delivery, a new webinar, or new assessments, EthosCE supports you and your physicians. Use Ethos CE’s robust LMS to discover if your program has bored or unsatisfied learners.

To learn more about how to improve your physicians’ satisfaction with your CME, request a free 1-on-1 demo with one of our specialists today!