Dr. Peter Selby (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health); Dr. Marilyn Herie (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health); Rosa Dragonetti (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health); Megan Barker (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)
Background
Primary care providers play an important role in motivating health behaviour change and providing evidence based treatment to smokers; however CME offerings can be a challenge due to resource limitations, large geographic areas, and time constraints.
Purpose
A monthly, interactive webinar series was developed to enhance knowledge and skills in evidencebased cessation interventions among primary care providers in Ontario, Canada.
Methods
A Mainpro-C/M1 accredited webinar series, Lunch and Learn Seminar Series for Health/Allied Health Practitioners offered monthly for 1 hour from April 2011 – August 2012. All sessions contain at least 50% interactivity through cases, Q&A, quizzes and online chat. Content included: brief screening & assessment; pharmacotherapy; brief motivational interventions; and specific populations. Summative evaluations and pre-post Learning Assessments are carried out for each session.
Results
Webinars reached a diverse group of practitioners in a cost-effective way without compromising quality of the learning experience or learning outcomes. 677 practitioners from 7 provinces attended 5 live webinars (April – August 2011): 92.8% Ontario, n=628. The most represented discipline was nursing (38.4%). Practitioner ratings of confidence in implementing knowledge and skills increased significantly post training (p<.05). Overall course evaluations were 4.28/5 (5=highest/best). These data are comparable to those achieved from TEACH classroom-based courses covering similar content.
Conclusion
These findings provide preliminary support for the feasibility of reaching large numbers of practitioners at low cost and across great distances with a series of brief interactive webinars.
Declaration
The TEACH project is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport’s Smoke-Free Ontario initiative.
