Revisiting “Discrepancy analysis in continuing medical education: A conceptual model”
✍ Scribed by Robert D. Fox
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 147 KB
- Volume
- 31
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-1912
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Fox reflects on what he sought to accomplish with the article he published in 1983 (reproduced below). He also comments on how well the concepts addressed in that article have held up over nearly 30 years of research and practice in continuing education for health professionals.]
If those responsible for offering continuing professional education cannot explain their successes or failures, one wonders if, in the next program, success can be repeated and failures avoided. Assessment is linked through theory to improvement. The purpose of this article was to introduce the notion of a discrepancy between what is and what ought to be-a gap analysis-as a means to assess needs and outcomes. Needs and outcomes were related to gaps in competencies, clinical performance, and patient health. The paper proposes that gaps in patient health before and after programs can be explained as either due to clinical performance or the effects of other factors (systems). It proposes that gaps in clinical performance can be attributed to gaps in competence or to other factors, such as barriers to change. This inductive and deductive reasoning and the formal explanations associated with gaps uncovered in assessments were Disclosure: The author reports none.