CME Mission Statement

Context
The Division of Continuing Medical Education at Loyola University Chicago – Stritch School of Medicine serves a Jesuit tradition of academic excellence in education, research and clinical care that embraces social responsibility, service to those in need, and respect for diversity of thought, opinion, and belief.

Vision
At Stritch School of Medicine, the CME program seeks to see beyond the traditional administrative and crediting functions of medical education, and challenges itself to become a catalyst, advocate for, and a provider of education that promotes change, development and improvement. We recognize that as a CME program and provider we must model behaviors that place a premium on quality improvement if we are to successfully communicate this message and practice to our educators and learners.

Purpose
We believe that CME facilitates and promotes the process of lifelong learning – a process that should help healthcare professionals at all stages of their professional development acquire the knowledge, attitude and skills necessary for contemporary medical practice.

Target Audience
We seek to serve not only the educational needs of healthcare professionals (physicians, allied health personnel, basic scientists, and researchers) within our institution but the needs of local, regional, and national healthcare providers and colleagues as well.

Types of Activities Provided
As a CME provider at an academic tertiary-care medical center, our educational activities include department-specific, interdepartmental and specialty-specific conferences, symposia and seminars. These events take the form of live courses, live regularly scheduled series, and live internet activities. The educational design, instructional method and learning format for each event is chosen to best serve the educational needs and learning objectives of the planned educational activity.

Content
Our activities offer a broad array of educational content targeted to the needs of the learners. Included among our educational offerings are updates in clinical medicine and basic science research, reviews of current or best practice recommendations for clinical care, learning modules in quality improvement, procedural and communication skill development exercises, as well as professional development in bioethics, leadership and patient safety.

Expected Results
Following an educational activity, we expect that learners, when surveyed, will report expanded or reinforced knowledge. We expect that they will report greater confidence in their approach to clinical problems or express their intent to change their behavior and apply newly acquired strategies in their practice. We expect that when observed our learners will demonstrate competence and an effective use of targeted skills. Finally, if evaluated within the setting of clinical practice, we expect performance parameters to show improvement or a favorable impact on targeted patient outcomes to be demonstrated.