Publications by authors named "Colla J MacDonald"

This study replicates a validation of the Interprofessional Collaboration Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS), a 20-item self-report instrument designed to assess behaviours associated with patient-centred, team-based, collaborative care. We appraised the content validity of the ICCAS for a foundation course in interprofessional collaboration, investigated its internal (factor) structure and concurrent validity, and compared results with those obtained previously by ICCAS authors. Self-assessed competency ratings were obtained from a broad spectrum of pre-licensure, health professions students (n = 785) using a retrospective, pre-/post-design.

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Background: The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada mandate that faculty members demonstrate they are evaluating residents on all CanMEDS (Canadian Medical Education Directions for Specialists) roles as part of the accreditation process. Postgraduate Medical Education at the University of Ottawa initiated a 5-year project to develop and implement a comprehensive system to assess the full spectrum of CanMEDS roles. This paper presents the findings from a needs assessment with Program Directors, in order to determine how postgraduate medical faculty can be motivated and supported to evaluate residents on the intrinsic CanMEDS roles.

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Background: As Family Medicine programs across Canada are transitioning into a competency-based curriculum, medical students and clinical teachers are increasingly incorporating tablet computers in their work and educational activities. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify how preceptors and residents use tablet computers to implement and adopt a new family medicine curriculum and to evaluate how they access applications (apps) through their tablet in an effort to support and enhance effective teaching and learning.

Methods: Residents and preceptors (n = 25) from the Family Medicine program working at the Pembroke Regional Hospital in Ontario, Canada, were given iPads and training on how to use the device in clinical teaching and learning activities and how to access the online curriculum.

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The purpose of this study was to obtain evidence regarding the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure the self-reported competencies of interprofessional care in interprofessional education programs. Five hundred and eighty-four students and clinicians in Canada and New Zealand who were registered in 15 interprofessional education undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional development programs completed the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) using a retrospective pre-test/post-test design. Factor analyses showed the presence of two factors in the pre-program items and one factor in the post-program items.

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Background: A training program in Reproduction, Early Development, and the Impact on Health (REDIH) was initiated in 2009 by researchers specializing in biomedical, clinical, population health, and ethics research from seven collaborating universities in Quebec and Ontario, and Health Canada. This paper reports the findings from the first three years of the 6-year program.

Objectives: The objective of the REDIH program is to provide increased opportunities for excellent training in reproduction and early development for graduate students and fellows, in order to build research, clinical, regulatory, decision-making, and industry capacity in Canada.

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Problem Addressed: Postgraduate medical education programs will need to be restructured in order to respond to curriculum initiatives promoted by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Objective Of Program: To develop a framework for the Triple C Competency-based Curriculum that will help provide residents with quality family medicine (FM) education programs.

Program Description: The Family Medicine Curriculum Framework (FMCF) incorporates the 4 principles of FM, the CanMEDs-FM roles, the Triple C curriculum principles, the curriculum content domains, and the pedagogic strategies, all of which support the development of attitudes, knowledge, and skills in postgraduate FM training programs.

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The Teams of Interprofessional Staff (TIPS) project consisted of five healthcare teams from across Ontario, participating in three, two-day face-to-face interprofessional educational (IPE) sessions over an 8-month period. The purpose of TIPS was to explore whether interprofessional team development for practicing healthcare professionals, makes a difference in team functioning, team member satisfaction, ability to work effectively both individually and as a team, and improved patient well-being. A comprehensive formative and summative evaluation revealed that all teams perceived they benefitted from and engaged in successful team development.

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Background: Recognizing the growing demand from medical students and residents for more comprehensive global health training, and the paucity of explicit curricula on such issues, global health and curriculum experts from the six Ontario Family Medicine Residency Programs worked together to design a framework for global health curricula in family medicine training programs.

Methods: A working group comprised of global health educators from Ontario's six medical schools conducted a scoping review of global health curricula, competencies, and pedagogical approaches. The working group then hosted a full day meeting, inviting experts in education, clinical care, family medicine and public health, and developed a consensus process and draft framework to design global health curricula.

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Interprofessional collaboration is vital to the delivery of quality care in long-term care settings; however, caregivers in long-term care face barriers to participating in training programs to improve collaborative practices. Consequently, eLearning can be used to create an environment that combines convenient, individual learning with collaborative experiential learning. Findings of this study revealed that learners enjoyed the flexibility of the Working Together learning resource.

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Interprofessional care (IPC) is a prerequisite for enhanced communication between healthcare team members, improved quality of care, and better outcomes for patients. A move to an IPC model requires changing the learning experiences of healthcare providers during and after their qualification program. With the rapid growth of online and blended approaches to learning, an educational framework that explains how to construct quality learning events to provide IPC is pressing.

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A framework is required to guide online Interprofessional Education (IPE) (Casimiro et al., 2009). The purpose of this paper is to present such a framework: W(e)Learn.

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The importance of collaborative practice in health care has been emphasized.1,21, 2 There is a critical need for convenient and flexible education opportunities that support the development of collaborative practice skills among the health care workforce. Consequently, the purpose of this project was to create and evaluate an online learning resource for physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists working in long-term care that provided practitioners with the skills, knowledge, and motivation necessary to enhance their ability to act as an interprofessional team while providing clinical care.

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