Pathology of Continuing Educational Programs in Iran Medical Society

Continuing education is necessary for all health providers through out presenting developing knowledge, new technologies and making an advanced direction, but much attempt is to be done for promoting its performance and making it effective. this study was designed in order to evaluate continuing education status in Iran medical society according to review of articles. In this systematic review, all available previously conducted studies and references were evaluated; generally, the published articles comprised one of the following three subjects:1- Motivational factors; 2- Factors related to the need assessment and educational priorities; 3- Factors related to the context and methodology. Based on the reviewed articles, according to the participant's point of views, learning scientific updates was their first choice and then needed privilege achievement was located. Most of them believed that subjects should be presented according to the occupational needs and privileges should be omitted. On the other hand, some continuing educational experts have stated that there is no scientific need assessment for these programs. Findings of several studies have also shown that lecture was the prominent teaching method in these programs. In spite of positive points of the law, all participants evaluated the program performance method as moderate level.So, it is suggested that together with correct law application and executive instructions, periodical and continues need assessment, repeated evaluation by mechanisms like reaccrediting the licenses, developing e-Learning methods, expert lecturer training and measuring the effectiveness of programs should be done through investigation on health indices, etc. in order to increase the effectiveness of these programs.