Grant: Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)

Continuing professional development, CPD is often seen as the principal means by which the members of the medical profession maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills and develop the personal qualities required for optimal patient care and safety. However, the lack of a widely accepted, theory-based, valid and reliable tool to assess the impact of CPD activities on clinical practice thwarts researchers comparisons of the effectiveness of CPD activities and prevents educators and policymakers from improving CPD. Using Godin integrated model for the study of healthcare professionals behaviour and intentions, we propose to develop a theory-based, valid and reliable tool to assess the impact of accredited, live CPD activities on clinical practice. Working through five phases, we will analyze existing tools and list items to be integrated into a new tool. We will then perform a test-retest of the new tool, including item analysis, to assess its reliability, and a before-and-after study to test its validity. Employing a KT integrated approach, we will work with stakeholders to highlight anticipated barriers and enablers for implementing the new tool in CPD practice and use consensus-building methods to develop an implementation plan. Constituted of KT researchers and CPD decision-makers, the partnership responsible for this proposal proposes to give the members of the Quebec Council for Medical CPD and other stakeholders a tool to validly and reliably measure the impacts of CPD activities, thus laying the groundwork for more targeted and effective CPD in the future.