A continuing medical education approach to improve sexual boundaries of physicians.

Introduction: Physician sexual boundary violations are a public health problem. Few resources exist to address physicians who behave inappropriately with patients. In response, the Center for Professional Health at Vanderbilt University developed a three-day continuing medical education (CME) course about proper professional sexual boundaries in 2000. The mission of this CME course is to offer an educational intervention for those physicians whose professional sexual misconduct has required such education as part of a larger accountability sanction. Previous studies suggest that when such education is offered through non-traditional medical education, it is effective in promoting behavioral change. This paper describes the three-day intensive educational experience offered by a CME course with a particular focus on lessons learned from more than 7 years of experience working with these physicians. Methods: Over 381 physicians from 40 states and Canada have attended. Data about course participants was coll...