Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T17:09:04.559Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Satellite Videoconferencing for Healthcare Workers: Audience Characteristics and the Importance of Continuing Education Credits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ii-Lun Chen
Affiliation:
Hospital Infections Program, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, US Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia
Joseph N. Eckhardt
Affiliation:
Hospital Infections Program, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, US Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia
Ronda L. Sinkowitz-Cochran*
Affiliation:
Hospital Infections Program, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, US Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia
William R. Jarvis
Affiliation:
Hospital Infections Program, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, US Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia
*
Hospital Infections Program, Mailstop E-69, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333

Abstract

To assess the opinions of healthcare workers (HCWs) about a satellite videoconference as a means of earning continuing education credit, a telephone survey was conducted in September 1998, 1 month after a live interactive satellite video-conference on antimicrobial use and resistance. There were 180 registered sites in 45 states surveyed, representing 1,589 viewers: 764 nurses (48.1%), 201 physicians (12.6%), and 624 other HCWs (39.3%). Continuing education credit was requested by 51% of nurses, 31% of physicians, and 27% of all other HCWs. Although preferred learning formats varied, 70% of respondents said it was important to offer continuing education credit. Furthermore, 31% of the respondents stated that the video-conference influenced institutional strategies. We concluded that satellite videoconferences are a method to reach audiences around the world efficiently and effectively, provide the latest information, facilitate interaction, and meet some of the demand for continuing education credit for HCWs.

Type
Information Management
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Canavan, K. Nurses' CE options expand with distance learning. Am J Nurs 1997;97:5960.Google Scholar
2. Masys, DR. Advances in information technology. Implications for medical education. West J Med 1998;168:341347.Google Scholar
3. Stinson, ER, Mueller, DA. Survey of health professionals' information habits and needs. JAMA 1980;243:140143.Google Scholar
4. Davis, DA, Thomson, MA, Oxman, AD, Haynes, RB. Changing physician performance. A systematic review of the effect of continuing medical education strategies. JAMA 1995;274:700705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5. Dawes, BS. Can distance learning provide a twenty-first century hallmark? AORN J 1998;68:170-172,174.Google Scholar
6. Hogg, W. The computer, CME, and the family physician. CMAJ 1991:144:346-348,351.Google Scholar
7. Lewis, CE. Continuing medical education: past, present, future. West J Med 1998;168:334340.Google Scholar
8. Holsgrove, G. Techniques for distance learning. Practitioner 1991;235: 296300.Google ScholarPubMed
9. Skolnick, AA, Shelton, W. Experts explore emerging information technologies: effects on medicine. JAMA 1996;275:668670.Google Scholar
10. Koop, CE. Why CME? Presented at the Third International Conference on Continuing Medical Education, December 14, 1989. Connecticut Medicine 1991;55:218221.Google Scholar