Continuing medical education for pathologists: Linking commitment to change statements and reasons for participation to practice change

Continuing Medical Education (CME) is a set of learning activities that engage physicians as life-long learners in a process of acquiring new knowledge and skills that will allow them to keep up-to-date with developments in their fields. Developing continuing education activities for physicians that will result in measurable improvement in the quality of patient care is the most important challenge facing educators of the health professions today.;My study examines the application of knowledge learned in Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities by pathologists to their daily practice and how their motivations for attending CME events relates to their intentions to integrate new knowledge and skills to their practice. The Participation Reasons Survey (PRS) and a Commitment to Change (CTC) form were used along with a questionnaire on demographics. Follow-up by e-mail questionnaires was used to engage the participants in a reflective process of examining their actual application of new knowledge or skills and how they see this linked to the particular CME activity.;This research found that the participating pathologists were most strongly motivated by factors described as "professional service". This is consistent across both work environments and years in practice. The participants who did not offer any CTC statements were significantly more motivated by the "collegial learning and interaction" choices on the PRS than those who did share any CTC statement. Participants who agreed to be contacted for a follow-up questionnaire on practice changes did not differ significantly in motivations for attendance from the other CTC participants.