摘要：PRIOR to 1930 continuing medical education in the United States was usually designed to compensate for deficiencies in physicians' basic preparation, but following the growth of specialty training and the improved standards of undergraduate medical schools, continuing education (CE) has emerged as a separate sphere of educational opportunity that updates the skills of practitioners to keep pace with advances in knowledge [1]. The present and projected expansion of CE programsfor physicians, nurses, and other practitioners is evident to those involved in the health care professions. Many state medical societies have CE requirements for membership; an increasing number of states are enacting legislation mandating CE for relicensure; all twenty-two medical specialty boards have policies providing for recertification, and seventeen have set dates for beginning recertification, with several of them making it mandatory; reregistration for nurses is already required in some states.
