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Volume 18 (3)
Volume 18, Issue 3, Summer 1998
J Contin Educ Health Prof 1998; 18(3):163-171
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Chart Audit and Chart Stimulated Recall as Methods of Needs Assessment in Continuing Professional Health Education
Penny Jennett, PhD, MA (Med Ed)
Louise Affleck, MA
A b s t r a c t
This article describes the chart audit (CA) and chart stimulated recall (CSR) needs
appraisal methods, outlines their strengths and limitations, and provides examples of their
applications in the continuing education (CE) environment. Both CA and CSR can be valuable
tools for continuing educators and learners in the following activities: the assessment of
needs prior to education, the identification of educational needs specific to a particular condition,
the reassessment of needs posteducation, the study of needs arising from factors
influencing management choices, needs assessment associated with professional competence
and performance, and the assessment of educational needs specific to practice guidelines.
Providing personalized and individualized feedback around actual practice and patients’
charts are attractive features shared by both procedures. CA has been used across disciplines
and care sites and is viewed as less costly and less intrusive than most needs assessment tools.
Its true value lies in the choice of appropriate explicit and implicit criteria and the definition
of valid standards, along with the availability of trained abstracters. When compared to CA,
CSR potentially increases the content validity and types of information accessible. As well, it
explores the reasoning around diagnostic, investigative, and management decisions. Further,
CSR permits patient, environmental, system, and other factors that can influence clinical decisions
to emerge. Opportunities for professional educators and learners to acquire knowledge
and skills about these needs appraisal approaches are required. As well, further studies regarding
the impact, feasibility, acceptability, cost effectiveness, reliability, and validity of these
tools in new care environments are required. Last, it is important that the results of CA and
CSR studies require diffusion to those in CE worksites. In this way, such findings can be translated
and imbedded into professional practice.
Keywords: Chart Audit; Chart Stimulated Recall; Continuing Professional Education; Needs Assessment
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