A retrospective analysis of grand rounds in continuing medical education.

Grand Rounds activities are an integral component of medical education. They present clinical problems in medicine by focusing on current or interesting cases. Grand Rounds originated as part of residency training wherein new information was taught and clinical reasoning skills were enhanced. Today, Grand Rounds also are used in continuing medical education as an instructional method for maintaining and improving clinical skills of practicing physicians. This study reviewed 43 Grand Rounds activities conducted by 12 departments in five affiliated hospitals as part of a program in Continuing Medical Education. All the Grand Rounds activities were developed to meet Category 1 requirements. They included the departmental Grand Rounds and the more specialized divisional Grand Rounds. An analysis of the 1138 physicians who attended one or more of the 1079 meetings of these Grand Rounds produced a preliminary description of a "typical" Grand Rounds activity. Analyses of these data suggest that Grand Rounds provides an important educational activity for medical students and graduate medical trainees as well as practicing physicians. The Category 1 accreditation requirements may serve to improve the educational outcomes of these activities and they provide an excellent mechanism for faculty role-modeling and improving clinical problem-solving skills.