Healthcare Disparities: Encouraging Change Through Continuing Professional Development

Richard A Menear; Katelyn N Hernandez; Lisa Handley; Ashley Ann Lora; Sarah A Nisly

doi:10.1080/28338073.2023.2269075

Healthcare Disparities: Encouraging Change Through Continuing Professional Development

J CME. 2023 Oct 15;12(1):2269075. doi: 10.1080/28338073.2023.2269075. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Richard A Menear¹, Katelyn N Hernandez², Lisa Handley³, Ashley Ann Lora⁴, Sarah A Nisly³

Affiliations

¹ High Point University, Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy High Point University, High Point, NC, USA.
² University of North Carolina, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
³ Clinical Education Alliance, Outcomes and Clinical Impact, Reston, VA, USA.
⁴ Eczema Patient Expert & Consultant, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Throughout history, healthcare disparities have contributed harm to patient's physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. Use of continuing professional development (CPD) can relay practical application of strategies to mitigate healthcare disparities. However, there is limited data on the impact of disparities focused CPD. In this article, we summarise quantitative data surrounding seven CPD programmes with a focus on healthcare disparities. In totality 41,588 healthcare providers interacted with educational content in these programmes. Learners responding to assessment questions yielded a 25% improvement in knowledge-based questions and a 27% improvement competence-based questions (p < 0.05 for each). Lastly, 1101 (2.5%) learners participated in a post-activity evaluation. Of those, 59% reported use of the information from these CPD programmes to reinforce their current practice, while 34% planned to make changes in their current practice to implement strategies to reduce or mitigate healthcare disparities. These findings show promise for use of CPD to improve awareness and help healthcare providers understand and mitigate disparities.

Keywords: Healthcare disparities; continuing education; continuing professional development; healthcare professionals.

Grants and funding

This research was not funded by any outside body. However, the individual programmes were funded as accredited education outlined in the table above. All research, analyses, and findings were done independently of the educational funders. The educational funders had no role in reviewing data, writing the manuscript, or presenting the findings.