Primary health care physicians' attitudes toward and assessment of continuing medical education in al-madina al munawara province, Saudi Arabia

Abstract AR

Objectives: To identify the primary health care (PHC) physicians' attitudes toward and assessment of continuing medical education (CME) physicians in Al Munawara Province.

Methods: This is a cross-acsectional descriptive study with analytic component of 115 physicians in Al Munawara Province conducted in 2000.

Of the participants, 83 or 72.2% of them were urban based and 32 or 37.8% were rural based A self-administered questionnaire was designed for this study.

Result: Around 75% of PHC physicians received a basic CME training course during practice.

The physicians who attended CME activities agreed that the CME activities were a stimulus for them to keep up-to-date (95.0%), improved practice (95.0%), gave more confidence and competence (78.3%), and offered opportunities (78.3%).

Primary health care physicians who evaluated the medical education centers' (MEC) contribution and continuing medical education programs (CME) with high marks got higher assessment scores than those who evaluated with low marks fP= 0.0074 and P = 0.021, respectively).

Primary health care physicians who had higher degrees and more experience in medical practice got higher attitudes scores than those who had fewer degrees and less experience fP= 0.0130 and P= 0.0096, respectively).

Continuing medical education was significantly affected by the physicians' experience in medical practice fP= 0.0173), number of PHC physicians in the working area (P= 0.0330), attachment to hospitals (P= 0.0382), and activities outside PHC centers (P= 0.0204).

Conclusion: The physicians' positive assessment of CME activities was significantly associated with a higher grade of evaluation of both the contribution of the MEC and CME.

In addition, positive attitudes toward CME were significantly and positively associated with age, postgraduate qualifications, more experience in medical practice, and a higher grade of evaluation of both MEC contribution and CME achievement.