Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of JCEHP

Issue 1 2020 marks our 40th anniversary year since the inception of JCEHP (initially as Mobius). The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (JCEHP) is continuing its mission of publishing articles relevant to theory, research, practice, and policy that contribute to the continuing professional development (CPD) of individuals and teams of health care professionals and the health professions. The journal has made great efforts and has had greater successes in attempting to improve the author and reviewer experiences while confirming our commitment to top tier research. We have seen increases in our number of submissions (10% increase over 4 years) and reviewer pool (over 2500 reviewers), a substantial decrease in average turnaround time (almost 50% over 3 years), and the continued worldwide expansion of reader and authorship (receiving submissions from over 70 countries). In the past few years, all the above-listed factors have progressed and continue to trend upward. The journal's visibility and implementation of new types of articles have led not only to an increase in submissions, but also to a wider selection of ideas and concepts for an ever-growing readership. The diversity of topics and methodologies with the CPD field does raise challenges for the review process. As such, the journal continues to pursue the quality assurance of the peer-reviewed process in the CPD community, as exampled by the launching of a peer reviewer mentoring program in 2020 led by our Statistics Associate Editor—Dr. John Kues. I strongly encourage those interested in reviewing for JCEHP to contact directly the journal Managing Editor Ms. Lauren Overbey. We are seeking content experts, researchers, clinicians, and educational practitioners to assist in promoting more diverse interactions between professionals while also reducing turnaround time for the review process. The content in Issue 1 represents a strong continuation of the pursuit of JCEHP's mission1 and exemplifies the use of the CPD Imagination2 by all the authors. The articles in this issue cluster around three major themes: (1) strategic issues in CPD and CME,3–6 (2) leadership development and mentoring in CPD and faculty development (FD),7–9 and finally, (3) CPD and interprofessional education.10,11 These themes demonstrate the diversity of interests and innovative vibrancy of the work in the CPD field that JCEHP seeks to support and publish. Interestingly, they all also seek to address “wicked”12 educational and clinical practice problems within the CPD/FD field and in the broader health care system. These are perennial problems that often defy easy solutions that, nonetheless, our authors in this first of issue of 2020 make valuable contributions toward resolving. A key question is raised by the first theme, strategic issues in CPD and FD: How do we evaluate the adequacy of these intervention systems in order to improve them? Vinas3 et al look into the past to draw upon a classical framework past to create a new CME/CPD Hierarchy of Needs approach as a way to prioritise needs and suggest new best practices. Iyer4 et al engage creatively with knowledge translation (KT) thinking and big data to examine the adequacy of residency training of general pediatricians. Drawing upon KT, they provide a startling gap analysis that has significant implications for general pediatric residency training in one US geographical setting. Lockyer5 et al utilise an interesting methodological approach to examine the particularly “wicked” problem of maintenance of certification. Using e-portfolio data to examine recorded assessment activities reported from five different physician specialties in Canada they identify the variation in assessment activities undertaken by different specialties, and the frequency and type of planned change that accrued from each type of assessment activity. The accessibility of common assessment activities, as well as their presence within physicians' community of practice, appears to be associated with usage and changes implemented or planned. It would seem that ease of access, interactive learning, and support within one's own community of practice remain key factors in CPD participation and clinical behaviour change for physicians. Van Tuijl6 et al use Kirkpatrick's fourth level to investigate the learning outcomes of quality improvement projects (QIPs) where health care professionals are trained to become leaders in the quality and safety of health care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the projects performed by health care professionals on their scope, effects, sustainability, and spread and to contribute to more knowledge and understanding about the performance of QIPs in continuing education quality and safety curricula. While only a few significant changes were detected, important insights were generated in relation to the need for context-sensitive QIP design and evaluation. Theme 2 leadership development, mentoring, in CPD and FD addresses leadership and mentoring issues in both CPD and FD, two concepts and practices that continue to preoccupy CPD scholars and practitioners alike, raising the question: What are the most effective ways for CPD and FD to tackle leadership and mentoring development? Christner et al7 provide some useful insights by addressing some key elements of medical education leadership by illustrating their attempts to implement a CPD program for medical education leaders to orient them to their new roles. Sood8 et al evaluate the effectiveness of a faculty mentor development program for scholarship at an academic health center focussing on improving the knowledge and skill of mentors for scholarship with a view to influencing mentorship at individual, social network, and institutional levels. Sandi and Chubinskaya9 provide a short report on their attempts to create an integrated mentoring program to facilitate the connection of mentees with appropriate mentors in academic medicine who can guide them to become independent researchers. The results suggest positive outcomes in terms of faculty retention, outcomes, and productivity. Finally, two interesting and quite different articles constitute theme 3, CPD and interprofessional education. This is a topic close to my own scholarly interests over the course of my career concerning the barriers to the training of physicians to become competent interprofessional collaborators.13,14 This is truly a “wicked” problem. Cheng Han Ng et al10 provide foundational knowledge about the problem through their systematic review of interprofessional communication training in internal medicine. Zimmerman et al11 describe the evaluation of their interprofessional workshop to enhance deprescribing practices among health care providers and advocate the use of a strong theoretical approach to address clinical behaviour change. Using continuing education principles (adult learning theory) in tandem with KT (theoretical domains framework), they present an innovative approach to enhancing what otherwise would be considered a fairly traditional continuing education workshop activity. In conclusion, the content of Issue 1 provides a solid foundation for our ongoing pursuit of new and creative approaches to the development, implementation, and evaluation of integrated CPD intervention designs in 2020.

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