Medical Education in Jordan... Does it Reflect on Performance?

He explained in a statement to «Al-Rai» that the next stage of professional development requires the integration of education with performance evaluation, so that reviewing practice within hospitals and departments helps identify training needs, while follow-up results are later used to develop programs and direct them towards areas that need improvement. Al-Awaida clarified that documenting participation represents one aspect of organizing continuous education, but it does not alone answer the question related to the impact of training, indicating that the real evaluation begins after the educational activity ends, did the participant acquire the targeted skill? And were they able to apply it in the work environment? And what factors helped or hindered that?

He pointed out that recent research has addressed the gap between what the healthcare worker learns and what is actually applied in practice, referring to a scientific review published in 2024 that included 13 articles, which concluded that the application of learning was not a main focus in the majority of the included studies.

The review identified time constraints and lack of human resources as barriers to application, while the nature of training, its content, and opportunities for shared learning emerged as facilitating factors.

Al-Awaida considered these results to support the inclusion of practice follow-up in program design from the outset, so that the educational content has a clear professional purpose, and the necessary means to achieve it within the work environment are determined.

Regarding the development of continuous medical education in Jordan, Al-Awaida called for building educational pathways that consider the nature of each job and level of clinical experience and responsibility, so that programs are linked to the actual needs of healthcare workers and departments.

He pointed out that the practical value of this approach is evident when a specific practice needs improvement, such as evidence-based medical practice in specialized departments, medical documentation, or mass casualty management programs, where the content, training method, and evaluation tool can then be chosen to suit the goal, and the results reviewed to determine the next step.

Al-Awaida suggested that training pathways include evidence-based medical practice, clinical data analysis, critical case physiology, clinical pharmacokinetics, antibiotic stewardship, along with organ transplantation awareness programs, applied medical physics, and measurement, monitoring, and safety sciences for allied health professions, each according to its specialty. According to Al-Awaida, these pathways can also be integrated with shared education in digital health, artificial intelligence, documentation, and legal responsibility, with priorities determined according to departmental needs and professional practice limits.

He also called for diversifying educational methods between specialized lectures, discussion of recurrent medical cases and research, practical training, simulation, and quality improvement projects, so that the form of the activity matches the skill or competency to be developed.

He noted that evidence related to practice audit and feedback provides a basis for measuring the impact of training on performance.

Al-Awaida emphasized the need to distinguish between acquiring knowledge, mastering a skill, changing practice, and improving patient health outcomes, explaining that each level has different measurement tools, and success in one does not automatically mean achieving the others.

He stressed that fair performance evaluation should not be limited to the healthcare practitioner, but also include the training program and the work environment, in terms of the availability of resources, procedures, supervision, and the time needed to apply what has been learned.

He considered that the appearance of a gap between training and application does not necessarily mean there is a deficiency in the practitioner, as the problem may be related to the work environment or available resources, which necessitates identifying and addressing the obstacles within the evaluation process. He called for starting pilot programs within selected departments in Jordanian healthcare institutions, in coordination between education and quality units and representatives of medical professions, including an initial measurement of a specific gap, targeted training to address it, and then an evaluation of skills or practice after application. As for linking programs directly to patient outcomes, he explained that it requires sufficient follow-up and consideration of the severity of cases and accompanying factors, so as not to attribute the results solely to training. Al-Awaida linked the development of continuous education to the health workforce planning file in Jordan, explaining that linking programs to competency evaluation, workload, and departmental needs may help estimate the required numbers of each specialty to achieve safe and effective care.

He added that evaluating proven skills and practical performance can provide a basis for more transparent merit points in employment and professional development, instead of relying solely on qualifications or participation in training activities.

He stressed that this approach may help align training with job opportunities and reduce unemployment, provided that training opportunities are equal and accompanied by workforce planning and the provision of funded jobs that respond to the actual needs of the sector.

Al-Awaida affirmed that building this integration would give continuous medical education a broader role in developing the Jordanian healthcare sector, so that performance data becomes a source for determining what needs to be learned, while learning outcomes become the basis for reviewing what needs improvement.