The Scottish Royal Colleges: a prospective survey of continuing medical education undertaken by their examiners.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the amount and nature of Continuing Medical Education (CME) activity undertaken by the examiners of the three Scottish Royal Colleges. The data obtained to be compared with recommendations for formal CME participation published by the medical Royal Colleges and Faculties. DESIGN: All examiners in active clinical practice prospectively surveyed over a 12 month period by completing a monthly return from a specially designed loose-leaf diary. RESULTS: 75% of the examiners who submitted all 12 monthly diary pages completed at least 100 hours CME during the year while 95% achieved 50 hours or more. This time was distributed approximately equally between hospital-based activities and activities for which study leave might have been taken. Although the mean total number of hours of CME undertaken by consultants based in district general hospitals was also over 100 hours in the year, this was significantly lower than the figure for teaching hospital consultants. The type of CME activity was described as general (16%), specialty (49%) and subspecialty (35%). The examiners surveyed found that specialist society and international specialist meetings were perceived to be the most valuable of those attended. CONCLUSIONS: The current recommendations for implementing formal CME systems for consultants are in line with the current activity levels of this group and should safeguard existing educational activity rather than impose new standards. This study suggests that the profession should not be unduly anxious about the introduction of a structured CME system although it is likely that some form of obligatory scheme will be required to achieve a more uniform response.