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ANESTHESIOLOGISTS' PREFERENCES REGARDING DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSES

^* Department of Anesthesia, Continuing Education, UHN Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Avenue, Toronto M5G 1X5,
^** Centre for Research in Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 200 Elizabeth Street, Toronto M5G 2C4

INTRODUCTION

In response to RCPSC maincert program the Anesthesia Continuing Education Committee resolved to provide learning modules enabling anesthesiologist to engage in self-directed continuing education. Expansion of electronic communication suggests that many would prefer this form of course delivery. A project was undertaken to gather relevant information from practicing Ontario anesthesiologists.

Objectives:

• To obtain from anesthesiologists their delivery preferences of CE course materials.
  
• To explore whether interest in electronic delivery is correlated to gender, age, location of practice, appointment to teaching hospitals, or number of years in practice.
  

METHODS

A survey questionnaire was sent to 875 anesthesiologists practicing in Ontario. A follow-up reminder letter was mailed one month later. Included with the questionnaire was an offer of a free module to be delivered by Email or regular mail that could generate Maincert credits.

RESULTS

Of 875 questionnaires mailed, 27 were returned due to incorrect addresses. A total of 413 were returned (47% return rate). Nine of those returned had no or little data due to the retirement of the anesthesiologist. A total of 404 responses (113 (30%) female/291 (70%) male) were entered in the database. Median age range was 41-50 years, number of years in practice 11-25 years; average of CE courses taken in one year was 3. Most (55%) were in rural practice, with 44% in university/teaching hospitals (other 1%). When asked to rate their level of comfort with the Internet on a 10 point scale (1 low, 10 high), 59% indicated a level of 8 or higher. Three hundred and thirty three respondents requested the module and of these the preferred delivery was regular mail 172 (52%), Email 134 (40%), fax 10 (3%), preference not selected 17 (5%). Rural and urban respondents requested regular mail delivery more often than Email, whereas the majority of those located in universities requested Email. However, Chi-squared tests showed no significant differences between gender, among age groups, location of practice nor affiliation with university/teaching hospitals.

DISCUSSION

Both Email and regular mail delivery was requested by all sub groups, indicating that both methods are needed to facilitate optimal use of learning modules.

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