A Longitudinal, Qualitative Examination of Participant Intent-To-Change Statements that do not Match the Stated Learning Objectives of American Association of Neurological Surgeons–Sponsored Continuing Medical Education Activities

Abstract

Continuing medical education (CME) programs are planned to provide medical professionals with the opportunity to stay abreast of new developments in their field. After each program, CME attendees are given the chance to evaluate the success of the activity in meeting its defined learning objectives. Over one-third of intent-to-change statements from CME evaluations do not match the stated learning objectives. We examined unmatched objectives and intent-to-change statements to determine their usefulness for future meeting planning. This retrospective mixed-method content analysis used quantitative, deductive content analysis to compare intent-to-change statements and learning objectives from American Association of Neurological Surgeons-sponsored CME activities to explore unintended learning themes. We examined 85 CME activities with 424 meeting objectives and 1950 intent-to-change statements. Approximately 37% of intent-to-change statements were unrelated to any meeting objective, and 15% of learning objectives had no associated intent-to-change statements. Among unmatched objectives, those regarding more general subject matter often failed to be met with intent-to-change statements for multiple years, whereas those related to clinical practice were more likely to be unmatched for only 1year. Some CME learning objectives are repeated for the same meeting for multiple years without change, although 22.6% of unmatched intent-to-change statements led to new learning objectives in subsequent years. An analysis of intent-to-change statements that are unmatched to meeting learning objectives is a potential avenue for understanding outcomes of CME activities. Our observations about general versus specific learning objective language may prove useful for CME planners' future educational event formulation.