Area of Responsibility: Area III: Implementation Keywords: Evaluation@@@Evidence-Based Practice@@@Quantitative Methods, Subcompetencies: 3.2.4 Deliver health education and promotion as designed., 3.3.2 Assess progress in achieving objectives. Research or Practice: Practice
Director, Public Health WebMD & Medscape Newark, New Jersey, United States
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Identify the primary advantages of using CE activities to deliver public health education to clinical audiences.
Summarize the quantifiable metrics that assess progress toward achieving the CE activity's knowledge-based learning objectives
Demonstrate how delivering accessible online continuing education functions as a scalable strategy to address urgent clinical workforce knowledge gaps.
Brief Abstract Summary: Gain insight into the measurable power of continuing education (CE) as a public health intervention to drive urgent clinical behavior change. Demonstrate that a short, online CE activity significantly boosted knowledge and confidence in critical syphilis and congenital syphilis care among Ob-Gyns, PCPs, and NPs/PAs. This poster presents quantitative evidence that CE is a scalable and high-impact strategy for public health professionals seeking to enhance the clinical workforce's readiness to address urgent public health challenges.
Detailed abstract description: Attendees will learn that Continuing Education (CE) is a reliable and highly effective strategy for achieving public health goals that require clinical practice change. This poster presents pre- and post-assessment data from an online CE intervention, "Rising Rates of Syphilis and Congenital Syphilis: How to Screen and Treat," designed to enhance clinical screening, treatment, and management practices.
This presentation showcases how robust program evaluation using pre- and post-assessment paired data can successfully measure the impact of online education across more than 450 clinicians (Ob-Gyns, Primary Care Physicians [PCPs], and NPs/PAs). This data provides proof of concept for public health educators seeking to validate CE as a core, justifiable workforce development investment.
Key Findings for Public Health Strategy and Evaluation:
- CE as a Rapid Solution: The program achieved statistically significant knowledge gains across all specialties, proving CE's utility as a rapid and accessible solution to address urgent clinical knowledge deficiencies. PCPs were four times more likely to answer all questions correctly post-education, demonstrating dramatic knowledge improvement.
- Driving Practice Change via Confidence: The intervention generated a Large Effect Size for knowledge acquisition across specialties (d=1.1 for PCPs, d=0.95 for Ob-Gyns). This measured knowledge gain, combined with reinforcement of existing practice, is statistically proven to drive subsequent increases in clinician confidence (self-efficacy), which acts as the key predictor for successful clinical practice adoption.*
- Targeted Educational Success: The evaluation data validates the CE design by showing dramatic relative increases in knowledge across crucial learning objectives, including a 100%–243% relative increase in knowledge regarding the benefits of opt-out testing.
This poster inspires action by providing robust quantitative evidence that accessible, online CE is a high-yield public health investment for efficiently and effectively training the clinical workforce to meet national public health goals. Funding for this activity was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health.
*Confidence (self-efficacy) is highly predictive of intent to change practice and is influenced by both reinforcement and new knowledge acquisition (Lucero & Chen, 2020; Lucero et al., 2024; Lucero & Moore, 2024).
