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Continuing Professional Development Integration of Formal CME and Quality Improvement Initiatives
ADDENDUM 2	Previous    Contents

Consequences for Basic Medical Education (BME) and Vocational training (VT)

Changes towards a more CPD- oriented policy will require basic changes in BME and VT, not only for the subject of General Practice, but also for other subjects. At the moment, there is a tendency to teach QI and EBM only in the time reserved for General Practice, whereas most of the topics mentioned below could belong to other disciplines in BME as well. All the elements have to be learned as early as possible, but some of the topics are particularly suitable for vocational training.

1. Preparation for life-long learning

• Basic principles of learning and studying; different learning styles and strategies, how do I learn best? What kind of learning strategies should I use in different situations? Self-knowledge is needed, and it has to be started during BME.
• Skills for continuously updating knowledge; how to do a literature search, how to use databases, how to read critically (critical appraisal, EBM), what kind of search-elements to use, how to make an overview of main results.
• Skills for identifying learning needs, how to assess learning needs, not only from an individual point of view but also taking patients and health care needs into account. Encouragement of positive attitudes towards QI during BME.

2. Skills for team-learning and multidisciplinary learning;

• To be able to work as a team member in task-orientated groups.
• Communication skills and leadership skills.

3. Basics of Quality Assurance (QA)

• What is quality, what is the place of QA in daily practice, terminology; basic philosophy of QA: the Plan Do Check Act cycle or quality cycle.
• Basic Procedures: peer review, practice visits, clinical internal or external audit, patient evaluation; feedback procedures etc.
• Quality indicators: definition, characteristics.
• Procedures and techniques to define and outline a quality problem.
• Value of guidelines, how to implement guidelines.
• Skills to assess one's own work: clinical incident analysis; structured case discussion; chart audit: clinical audit; video assessment of communication skills etc…
• Skills to analyse and interpret figures
• Skills to plan actions for improvement and to evaluate them
• QA management skills: change management, time management, leadership, annual report and planning QA. working as a team.

4. Working with a learning agenda (discover your own needs, evaluate your learning progress, record it in an individual portfolio).