7. Self-assessment for knowledge building in health care

Abstract

The 2002 Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care recommended improvements in education and practice in end-of-life care for a growing and aging Canadian population. The aim of this study was to design, develop, and evaluate a continuing professional development program in end-of-life care for accreditation by the Ontario College of Family Physicians. The challenge was to provide a robust, interactive program easily accessible to busy family doctors distributed over a large geographic area. A comprehensive and collaborative knowledge building model, blending asynchronous Knowledge Forum® technology and synchronous interactive videoconferencing was created, to enable individual knowledge improvement and community advancement of ideas in clinical practice. The focus of this design research was a novel method of online, embedded and concurrent self-assessment. Results indicated gains in understanding and program satisfaction associated with knowledge building participation.