Does participation in CME SLG (small group learning) influence medical practice? The experience of general practitioners attending CME SLG after the introduction of the Medical Practitioners Act.

In Ireland, Continuing Medical Education (CME) for GPs is delivered by a national network of 37 tutors who coordinate learning sessions for between 2 and 5 small groups of physicians (SGL). Each group meets up to 8 times per year; 1100 to 1700 doctors attend CME-SGL nationally each month, with numbers increased since the Irish Medical Practitioners Act. This study investigated whether CME-SGL improves clinical knowledge of doctors. A questionnaire was administered by 35 CME tutors at their scheduled meetings in November/December 2012; 1366 (96%) attendees responded. In total 1312 (97%) doctors reported that they want to improve their clinical practice, and 1143 (86.3%) agreed that CME had helped them to do so. Of these, 1041 (91.1%) doctors gave specific examples. This survey provides evidence of how CME-SGL has impacted on the knowledge, skills, attitudes, prescribing, use of investigations, and application of guidelines and audit of these Irish GPs.