Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (03/28/23) Windfeld-Lund, Cristie; Sturt, Rodney; Pham, Carol; et al.

A systematic review of continuing allied health professional (AHP) clinical education programs assessed their ability to expand knowledge, change clinical practice behavior and/or enhance patient-related clinical outcomes. The authors identified 44 controlled clinical studies evaluating the effectiveness of clinical education programs. The studies only included therapy-specific AHPs; Twenty-six involved only physiotherapists. The majority of the control groups were waitlist, passive dissemination of information or usual care, which limited program comparisons. Thirteen of 20 investigated trials yielded improvement in AHP knowledge, while 15 of 30 studies indicated that cohorts differed in terms of changes to practice behavior. Five of 17 studies assessing patient-related clinical outcomes indicated intergroup differences, with improvements usually concentrated in programs incorporating self-selection and aligned with the learners' contextual requirements. The researchers observed that targeted education improves AHP knowledge. "To change AHP behavior and patient outcomes, it seems important to incorporate self-selection for the program and consider the learner's individual needs and contexts through mentoring, outreach visits, reflection and incorporating patient participation in the learning," they concluded.

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