Public health grand rounds at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: evaluation feedback from a broad community of learners.

Objective: To evaluate the relevance and educational benefit of monthly Public Health Grand Rounds (GR), an hour-long interactive lecture series featuring 1 current, relevant public health topic. Design: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data evaluating GR format and content submitted by 2063 continuing education (CE) participants. Setting: Survey data submitted electronically to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention online CE system from January 2010 through December 2011. Participants: Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, health education specialists, and other health care professionals seeking CE credits for Public Health GR. Main Outcome Measures: Proportion of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that GR is using educational strategies that enhance user learning and is meeting preidentified learning objectives. Results: On questions involving instructional strategies and delivery methods, 95.0% and 95.6% of respondents, respectively, agreed or strongly agreed that the GR was conducive to learning. More than 90% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they could describe the burden of the disease/condition in question and identify key preventive interventions, knowledge gaps, and measures of public health progress. Conclusions: These evaluation results indicate that the GR is meeting content-specific and educational needs of diverse health care professionals. The GR models organized scientific discussions on evidence and translation into real-world impacts of decreased morbidity, mortality, and health care costs, and links public health to clinical practice. This promotes a greater understanding of the interplay of different health fields and may lead to greater and cross-disciplinary collaborations.