The evaluation of a composed program of continuing medical education for general practitioners

The execution of composed educational programs for general practitioners is one of the most common methods of continuing medical education. This research project aims to evaluate one of these programs. For this purpose, a pre- and post-test design was developed. The subjects consisted of 45 participants. They were tested (by a 76 MCQ knowledge test) in two stages: before and after the program. A questionnaire was also used to gather the participants’ views on four variables including teachers'' behavior, the degree of achieving the objective of the program, objective of the learner, and satisfaction with the program. Based on the results of this study, the mean scores of the articipants’knowledge increased from 10.05 (first test) to 12.61 (second test), (p 0.0001). In addition, the results showed that the teachers’ behavior and satisfaction with the program were rated by participants as the highest and least, respectively. The results of this research are indicative of the effectiveness of the composed educational program in continuing medical education. Nevertheless, such programs are recommended to be further evaluated with more rigorous design.