Environmental scanning refers to the many methods and resources that continuing professional educators use to assess their internal and external surroundings and the forces at work within the health, social, and political contexts to help them to identifL current and potential learning needs. This article describes the general techniques and sources available for environmental scanning, the advantages and disadvantages of scanning, a checklist for evaluating the quality and usefulness of documents that might be used, and a perspective on the ethics of scanning. Scanning provides a practical and systematic means of using data that is available to improve the continuing professional education eflort.

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Provision of learning opportunities at the practice site that are practitioner-directed and experience-based and are organized around practice problems and context yields special benefits. The professional need not leave the work environment, and consequently, travel costs are reduced, potential income and productivity are' enhanced, and what is learned is more likely to be applied immediately.