Ngoc-Thanh-Van Nguyen¹
Sy Van Hoang¹, Thi-Thanh-Huong Ta¹ and Hoa Ngoc Chau¹
1 University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh city

Continuing professional development (CPD) is required for maintaining practice after registration. Two critical issues exist in CPD assessments. First, evaluation focuses on summative rather than formative assessment. Second, theoretical MCQs fail to evaluate the learner's capacity to effectively applying these updates in improving patients' outcome. Therefore, we designed a pilot study, aiming to (1) deliver formative assessments to facilitate participants with heterogenous background to achieve the homogeneous requirements, and to (2) strengthen participants' ability to apply updated knowledge in practice by solving common real-world cases. 

From May to October 2022, we conducted a hierarchical CPD program on “Diagnosis and Treatment of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Hypertension”, starting from lectures on detection, diagnosis, treatment and ending in small group practice. During the practice session, no lectures were delivered. Instead, learners were divided into small group of 20 and solved 12 challenging scenarios together using the acquired knowledge. Each learner was required to interact with other team members during problem solving, and self-reflect before receiving feedback from tutors. These activities served as multiple formative assessments before the final summative MCQ. At least 70% of summative MCQ should be correct to receive CPD certificate. 

Our program addressed 2 common issues in CPD assessments. First, using a hierarchical model, we provided all necessary knowledge, from basic to advanced levels, with multiple formative assessments along the way, so that learners from different background could meet the similar passing requirement in summative assessment (100% pass rate). Second, practical cases represent common barriers during practice, so participants would have multiple exposures, reflections and thus be better prepared in applying learned knowledge into practice (100% reported feeling more confidence in clinical application). 

Our pioneering CPD design was the first in Vietnam that included multiple formative assessments, facilitating learners to better applying knowledge to improve patient care. 

References (maximum three) 

Wallace S, et al. Assessing and enhancing quality through outcomes-based continuing professional development (CPD): a review of current practice. Vet Rec. 2016 Nov 19; 179(20): 515–520.doi: 10.1136/vr.103862