“Clinical Supervision with Confidence”: Exploring the potential of MOOCs for faculty development

Background: Postgraduate medical trainees require named clinical supervisors. Given the time pressures and difficulties of geographical access, there is a need to identify appropriate solutions for faculty development. We developed and launched a clinical supervision MOOC (FutureLearn platform) in March 2015. Objective: To assess the potential of the clinical supervision MOOC for faculty development. Methods: Quantitative data was obtained from FutureLearn course analytics and course surveys; qualitative data was obtained from learner feedback within the MOOC. Results: Learners (1,938) from over 75 countries signed up for the MOOC. Of the 899 individuals who began the course, 334 (37.2%) completed. Learners were highly satisfied with the course design and delivery, and enjoyed the opportunities for interprofessional and social learning. Conclusions: MOOCs have great potential for faculty development without geographical boundaries

Moving with the times - medical education in the digital age

Background and Purpose: Within the UK, the General Medical Council (GMC) now requires all medical students and postgraduate trainees to have named, accredited clinical supervisors in every hospital or community placement.1 A framework for the professional development of medical educators adopted by GMC is currently being operationalised by Health Education England.2 Given the time pressures of the busy doctor, difficulties of geographical access, the roll-out of the GMC guidance and the launch of the national revalidation programme for doctors, the time appears ripe to bring postgraduate medical training into the digital age. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have made online learning on a plethora of topics accessible to thousands of learners worldwide who would otherwise be unable to access this learning. There are several MOOCs suitable for postgraduate medical training but these have largely been offered by platforms based in USA eg. Coursera and EdX.3 Faculty development/ postgraduate medical training offered through MOOCs is limited in the UK. There was a unique opportunity for UEA to launch a two week MOOC in March 2015 on the FutureLearn platform offering free, online clinical supervision training to medical educators, a community that has hitherto relied largely on face-to-face training.4 The aim of this project is to evaluate the first run of the MOOC using data collected during the course. Methods: The MOOC focuses on two areas that can be challenging to new supervisors – giving feedback, and remediation for trainees needing extra support. Data will be obtained from FutureLearn course analytics, learner participation and feedback, and the course team. Effectiveness of the MOOC will be evaluated using a published framework for evaluation of e-learning in health.5 Results: The course analytics will provide a rich source of quantitative and qualitative data including the geographic reach of the course, the medical education roles of the learners, as well as the motivation for undertaking it. Samples of discussion board content will be used to illustrate specific points made by learners. Discussion and Conclusion: This work will enable us to evaluate the effectiveness of using MOOCs for faculty development and postgraduate medical education. Effective clinical supervisors need to continually develop, maintain and refresh their supervision skills, and keep in touch with medical education literature and policy developments to maximise patient safety. For the busy medical practitioner, MOOCs provide a potential mechanism to keep up-to-date with developments in clinical education

An evaluation of information cards as a means of improving communication between hospital and primary care for women with breast cancer.

This paper describes an intervention study aimed at improving communication between hospital services and the primary health care team. A series of information cards were developed by breast specialist secondary care professionals for members of the primary health care team. Women with breast cancer were involved in the communication pathway and were asked to take the information cards to their own general practitioner (GP) practice. It was envisaged that women would be more likely to utilize the primary health care team for information if they were aware that the primary health care team was in receipt of information specific to the treatment they had received. Women newly diagnosed with breast cancer were allocated to either an intervention (n=38) or non-intervention (n=38) group. Patient interviews were carried out around the time of diagnosis and at 4 months from diagnosis. Interviews were also carried out with 31 GPs to ascertain their views on the provision of information for women with breast cancer, and on the information cards if relevant. The study findings were interesting although not significant in terms of the direction anticipated. The cards did not impact on the utilization of the primary health care team and women in the intervention group were no more likely to utilize primary care sources of information than women in the non-intervention group. Factors such as the long-standing relationship women had with their GP, the perceived lack of specialist knowledge on the part of GPs and district nurses, and the women's perception that information seeking was not a tangible reason for primary care contact had an impact on information-seeking behaviour

Information needs and sources of information for women with breast cancer: a follow-up study.

This paper reports a study which examined the specific information needs and sources of information for 105 women with breast cancer at two time points, the time of diagnosis and a mean of 21 months from diagnosis. At diagnosis the priority information needs concerned survival issues. Further from diagnosis survival issues were still a concern, but information about the risk to family members of getting breast cancer showed a significant increase in importance. Information about sexual attractiveness was ranked last at both the newly diagnosed and follow-up stages. Information sources at the time of diagnosis centred around the specialist breast care service, while further from diagnosis few professional or voluntary sector sources were utilized, with women receiving most of their information from media sources such as women's magazines. The relevance of these findings for nurses and other health care professionals is discussed

Meaning of illness for women with breast cancer.

The meaning that women with breast cancer ascribe to their disease may well have an impact on the effectiveness of coping strategies used to come to terms with breast cancer. Health care professionals need to know what meanings women with breast cancer are ascribing to their disease if they are to identify maladaptive coping strategies and ensure that women receive the support that they need in order to promote physical and psychological recovery. This study involved assessing meaning of illness for a group of women with breast cancer at two points in time, the time of diagnosis and a mean of 21 months from diagnosis. The eight meanings of illness devised by Lipowski were depicted by the following words: challenge, enemy, punishment, loss, strategy, relief, weakness and value. The most popular choice of meaning for the women was challenge, although some women's choices indicated that maladaptive coping strategies were being used. The implications of the study for nurses and other health care professionals are discussed