Continuing professional development in medicine : the inherent values of the system for quality assurance in health care

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The practice of medicine has always been a big area of interest as aprofession. The focus ranges depending on issues at hand - it maybe on the educational, training, humanistic, economic, professionalethics and legal aspects.One area of medicine that is under the spotlight around the world isthat of the maintenance of clinical competency, followed veryclosely and almost linked to professional ethics. This study followsthe introduction of a system of Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment (hereinafter also referred to as CPD), in South Africaand an overview of how it has been introduced in a few othercountries. The main areas of focus being the extrication of inherentvalues of CPD, relating this aspect to quality improvement inmedical health care.The medical profession as well as most of the interested parties, hasdifferent perspectives regarding the fact that the system is regulatedthrough legislation. There is also the doubt whether the CPD systemwill be effective in achieving the goals that it has been set toachieve. Although a system of Continuing Medical Education hasbeen a tradition in all countries, which implies that the CPD systemis not totally new as far as the educational principles are concerned,the values accruable need to be exploited. It is the possible successof this kind of evaluations that may foster more understanding ofthe inherent values in this CPD system.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University