Incorporating Peer Voice to Increase Engagement in Education and Adoption in Practice

Continuing education is a critical tool in supporting clinicians to improve their practice. However, underpinning the clinician’s quest for improvement are certain attitudes and beliefs that can be barriers to applying new knowledge or skills. These attitudes and beliefs can stifle motivation and change, leaving clinician learners armed with information and strategies, but who are also hindered by doubts, fears, and frustrations. The reasons “why I can't” may drown out the “here’s how,” leading to clinical inertia and missed conversations.

Unfortunately, traditional forms of clinical continuing education are often designed as passive learning experiences; we are often designing our activities to provide “expert opinion” on “evidence-based practice.” Very few activities intentionally integrate the voice of peers, allowing clinical learners to connect with their colleagues, many of whom are struggling with similar concerns and frustrations. Yet, research has shown that clinicians are more likely to adopt and use new therapies if these are used by those within their professional social networks (Keating NL, et al, 2020).

As our community heard at Alliance 2025 from Dr. Damon Centola, clinician change does not function as a “simple contagion,” spreading from one person to the next but rather as a “complex contagion,” requiring social reinforcement to ensure adoption. That is, “If physicians have concerns about the credibility of a new treatment, or about its perceived legitimacy within their medical community, then simply having contact with 1 colleague who has adopted it will typically not be sufficient to convince a clinician to start prescribing it. Social reinforcement from several peers is needed to demonstrate that a treatment is seen as legitimate within their medical community” (Centola D, 2020).

This session will utilize a case example featuring an activity designed to integrate perspectives from content experts alongside representatives of the target audience. This was a unique online curriculum that leveraged social learning principles through a series of 3 case-based modules featuring didactic content alongside Clinical Rounds. These rounds are peer-based discussions between Subject Matter Experts alongside Contributing Faculty, who brought real-world experience directly into the content presented to learners.

Learners will participate in a case study-based discussion with peers and actively engage through meaningful conversations, polling questions, and reflections on the applicability to their own practice. We will share outcomes of the program, as well as lessons learned related to developing the content, working with faculty, measuring and reporting on attitudinal elements of education. Faculty will represent a variety of perspectives, including those of the instructional designer, content developer, outcomes specialist, and industry supporter.

This session is applicable to all member sessions. Participants in this session will gain new knowledge regarding how change spreads in clinician networks. They will take home new methods for engaging learners that can be applied in their own CE activities to promote application in practice, desired behavior change, and rich outcomes data.