Faculty of Education - Theses

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End date: 1999 × Subject: Evaluation × Subject: Victoria × Start date: 1990 × Author: Findlay, Denise Joy ×

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    An evaluation of the Australian Paediatric Review Training Program in Victoria
    Findlay, Denise Joy ( 1999)
    The Australian Paediatric Review Training Program (APRTP) is a continuing medical education program in paediatric and adolescent health for general practitioners. The educational structure of the APRTP includes a pre-meeting quiz, attendance at a meeting, a post-meeting quiz and quiz feedback, with completion of the post-meeting quiz optional. This evaluation of the APRTP in Victoria was undertaken two and a half years after the commencement of the Program, as a pilot for a national evaluation of the Program. A "critical multiplist" approach was used in evaluating the APRTP in Victoria, combining data from a number of different evaluation methodologies - participant meeting evaluation, pre and post meeting quiz analysis, one-to-one semi-structured interviews and a participant survey. The interviews and participant survey were informed by the development of a program theory for the APRTP, based on the literature on continuing medical education and behaviour change theories. As the Medical Educator in the Program my role includes designing the Program process, developing the educational objectives and material for each of the meetings, and coding and interpreting evaluation data from the meeting and quizzes. This role expanded to include all aspects of the evaluation of the Program apart from the analysis of quiz and survey data which was undertaken by the external consultant statistician employed by the Program. There were good response rates to the various evaluation instruments (69%-82%). The evaluation results confirmed the process, components and educational activities described in the program theory and further strengthened the program theory. Overall, the data gathered confirmed that participants were positive about the value of the Program and its various components, reinforcing that the structure of the Program should be maintained. The evaluation also identified areas of the Program which require change - the meeting format (meeting group size and more effective small group work), meeting delivery (appropriate selection and adequate briefing of resource people to ensure relevance for general practice), administrative problems (more reliable mailout), and access to the Program (distance education, more venues etc). The evaluation results identified that sessions within a meeting were valued differently by participants and had differing impact. The extent of changes identified varied from meeting to meeting and knowledge acquisition was more likely to occur than identification of a change in practice, which is consistent with the literature. While the evaluation gathered evidence that change was most likely when new clinical knowledge or information about new clinical approaches was presented, the actual content and delivery of the material were also important in influencing change. The evaluation also highlighted that the Program does not assess actual physician performance and therefore does not identify whether changes due to Program participation are translated into actual clinical practice.