Rule
The ACCME asks the accredited provider to craft a CME mission statement that will serve as a roadmap for what it seeks to achieve through its accredited CME program. The provider is free to include any parameters that are relevant to its program, learners, setting, goals, but must at least include what it seeks to change in terms of learners’ competence, performance and/or patient outcomes.
Definition: Competence In the ACCME context, we are using Miller’s (1990) definition of competence as “knowing how” to do something. Knowledge, in the presence of experience and judgment, is translated into ability (competence) – which has not yet been put into practice. It is what a professional would do in practice, if given the opportunity. The skills, abilities and strategies one implements in practice is performance. See Miller GE. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med. 1990; 65(9 Suppl):S63-7.
Definition: Performance Performance is competence into action. It refers to the skills, abilities, and strategies that professionals implement in their real-world practice.
Definition: Patient outcomes The impacts or changes that occur as a result of a practitioner’s performance. They can include various aspects such as patient health status, patient satisfaction, patient engagement, and the delivery of safe and effective care. Outcomes are measured to determine the impact of educational interventions on patient care. ACCME emphasizes that patient outcomes often result from more than just a single practitioner’s performance and can encompass broader impacts on patients, healthcare systems, and populations. ACCME uses these definitions to help educators design and evaluate continuing medical education programs effectively, focusing on different levels of impact from knowledge acquisition to changes in practice and ultimately patient care.
