Competencies for continuing education faculty in the health professions

Abstract

Formal pre- and postdoctoral health professional education and continuing health professional education are different in their designs, contents, and respective student bodies. Faculty must, therefore, acquire and use an appropriate teaching approach for each group. The competencies necessary in a continuing education setting may be unique to this setting or they may be modifications of skills used in the formal setting. They include: assessing needs, designing curricula, employing a learner-centered approach, insuring relevance, establishing a learning set, using flexible and varied methods, individualizing, and evaluating. This paper provides descriptions of rationales for these competencies.