(Mis)perceptions of continuing education: insights from knowledge translation, quality improvement, and patient safety leaders

INTRODUCTION: Minimal attention has been given to the intersection and potential collaboration among the domains of continuing education (CE), knowledge translation (KT), quality improvement (QI), and patient safety (PS), despite their overlapping objectives. A study was undertaken to examine leaders' perspectives of these 4 domains and their relationships to each other. In this article, we report on a subset of the data that focuses on how leaders in KT, PS, and QI define and view the domain of CE and opportunities for collaboration. METHODS: This study is based on a qualitative interpretivist framework to guide the collection and analysis of data in semistructured interviews. Criterion-based, maximum variation, and snowball sampling were used to identify key opinion leaders in each domain. The sample consisted of 15 individuals from the domains KT, QI, and PS. The transcripts were coded using a directed content analysis approach. RESULTS: The findings are organized into 3 thematic subsections: (1) definition and interpretation of CE, (2) concerns about relevance and effectiveness of CE, and (3) opportunities for collaboration among CE and the other domains. While there were slight differences among the data from the leaders of each domain, common themes were generally reported. DISCUSSION: The findings provide CE leaders with information about KT, QI, and PS leaders' (mis)perceptions about CE that can inform future strategic planning and activities. CE leaders can play an important role in building upon initial collaborations among the domains to enable their strengths to complement each other.