CURRENT ISSUE
BACK ISSUES
SUBSCRIBE
ADVERTISE
ABOUT JCEHP
FOR AUTHORS
JCEHP AWARD
SEARCH
(Members only) FULL-TEXT
|
|
Volume 15 (2)
Volume 15, Issue 2, June 1995
J Contin Educ Health Prof 1995; 15(2):80-90
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
Physician Teach Thyself: The Place of Self-Directed Learning in Continuing Medical Education
Philip C. Candy, EdD
A b s t r a c t
Continuing medical education (CME) planners are faced with new challenges in
The theme for the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Medical
Education was Creating a New CME Paradigm: Seizing the Opportunities within the Health
Care Revolution. Among seven global objectives, it was intended that participants should
(1) understand how health care changes might affect the provision of CME and (2) increase
the options available to CME practitioners to enhance their role as facilitators of change in
the new health care paradigm. This article contributes to the accomplishment of these two
objectives. It begins by discussing the need for self-directed learning in the health care professions,
particularly in continuing medical education. It is argued that self-direction can help
to provide flexible, responsive, and relevant CME. The article then turns to a consideration
of what is meant by the term paradigm shift and, using self-care as an analogy, it is argued
that self-direction, if embraced and implemented wholeheartedly, would represent a far-reaching
change to all aspects of medical education and of continuing medical education.
Keywords: Education, medical continuing; education, professional, continuing; paradigm shift, physicians; self-care, self-directed learning
|