Martin Labelle (Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec); Claude Guimond (Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec); Pierre Raîche (Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec)

Background

July 1st 2007, the Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ), the Quebec medical licensing authority, strongly encouraged all physicians to use a self-managed continuing professional development plan (SCPDP) to maintain their competency.

Summary of Work

The FMOQ’s CPD Division developed tools (paper and electronic SCPDP, workshops and guide) and updated them yearly to help physicians plan their continuing development strategy based on a reflective approach. Given the increasing prevalence of team-work, an interactive workshop on the Canmeds framework was developed and disseminated. As physicians’ everyday practice reality is constantly changing, a further new workshop on “Change Management” was produced. This workshop presents a specific methodology to help physicians manage different types of changes in their professional practice: collaborative inter-professional practice, chronic disease management, implementation of electronic medical record, etc. These tools and workshops were developed with an educational grant provided by six different pharmaceutical companies.

Results

Though initially perceived negatively by physicians, a reflective approach to CPD has been facilitated by providing various tools and has led physicians to participate in professional development and team work training.

Conclusion

Providing adequate tools and workshops greatly facilitates the response to new professional standards and can lead to better understanding of team-work, integration of other professionals in healthcare teams and change management.

Take-home Messages / Keywords

• Ethical obligation
• Adequate tools
• Healthcare team
• Change management

Declaration

No conflict of interest.