Help Stamp Out Mandatory Continuing Education!

Mandatory continuing education programs for health professionals, as they are now administered, are predictable failures. Such programs may destroy the will to learn. Objective studies indicate that current continuing education programs do not influence the methods of practice of the health professional. Current programs are primarily pedagogical, reflecting the philosophies and techniques of child-youth education. Present methods of program evaluation are sorely inadequate. Adults may be coerced into attendance, but learning and subsequent application of knowledge may not be forced. Future continuing education programs should be problem-centered. The adult practitioner must become actively involved in the planning and execution of these programs.