D3-04 - What Counts in CPD Scholarship? Expanding Legitimate Scholarly Pursuits for the Field

ABSTRACTS

Author(s)

• Eleftherios K. Soleas, OCT, PhD, Director of Lifelong Learning and Innovation, Queen’s University, Faculty of Health Sciences
• Stephen Miller, MD, MEd, Senior Associate Dean, Dalhousie University
• Teresa Chan, MD, PhD, Dean, Toronto Metropolitan University
• Clare Cook, PhD, Educational Consultant, Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Background/context/inquiry question

Accreditation standards for Canadian Continuing Professional Development (CPD) require scholarly output from each Office in Canada. However, it is unclear what defines CPD scholarship. There is no agreed upon consensus statement to outline what might be considered CPD scholarship. A consensus statement could be used within national accreditation processes, strategic planning exercises, and overall in expanding the types and acceptance of activities as recognized scholarly work.

Theoretical framework(s)

True Delphi Process

Methods

We conducted a 4-phase modified Delphi process (1. registration, 2. ideation, 3. consensus, and 4. validation). After phase 2 and 3, the responses for each phase were reported back to them. For each phase, recruited individuals were contacted thrice by email to optimize their report.

Results/findings

We recruited 31 participants and 29 of these completed every phase for a completion rate of 93.5%. 18/31 proposed types of scholarship from the ideation phase received 75% endorsement or more as CPD scholarship after the validation phase. Novel forms of scholarship endorsed included: Community Engagement, Testing/Pilot Approaches, and Advocacy Scholarship.

Discussion

The results of this study support a core set of types of scholarship in CPD. An emergent group of types of scholarship nearing the 75% endorsement mark indicate that the demographics of types of CPD scholarship will continue to change and thus requires continued study.

Limitations

Canadian sample

Impact/relevance to the advancement of the field of CME/CPD

This study points to new types of scholarship for organizations to consider as a part of their mandate to be scholarly in their approaches to CPD. This work may have implications for promotion and tenure of researchers, where applicable.