Should Residents Do Continuing Medical Education?

Consolidated opinion of Steve Leslie, MD; James Hughes, MD; Jesse Cole, MD; and Nicholas Lorenzo, MD.

Traditionally, residents rarely complete continuing medical education (CME). The reason is that it is very expensive. But if there was an inexpensive means of earning CME, why not document your learning and provide an entirely new session on your curriculum vitae for your fellowship application?

Many websites offer free CME sponsored by drug companies. Usually, medical students and residents are allowed to complete the courses. In addition, StatPearls offers a package rate of 6,000 CME courses at a rate of $150 with access for an entire year. This allows students to read articles and do practice multiple choice questions while building a new section in their curriculum vitae documenting courses completed. This allows students or residents interested in fellowships to distinguish themselves by selecting courses in the primary area of interest.

For example, you were interested in emergency medicine; there are over 2,000 CME courses for this one specialty. If you read an emergency medicine textbook cover to cover, no one will know. But if you complete 200 hours of emergency medicine CME, now you have something to document and validate your interest with proof of what you have learned.