General practitioners as educators in adolescent health: a training evaluation

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Peter Chown¹  Jennifer Bird²  Robert Trigger³  Christine Ahern³  Thea Van de Mortel⁴ 

[1] Bangalow Professional Centre, Suite 4, Lot 1 Ballina Road, 2479, Bangalow, NSW, Australia;Birdtalk, 39 Leslie Street, 2479, Bangalow, NSW, Australia;North Coast GP Training, PO Box 4978, 2478, Ballina, NSW, Australia;School of Nursing & Midwifery, Griffith University, Parklands Drive, 4215, Southport, QLD, Australia;

关键词: Adolescents;    Community health education;    Medical education;    Training;    General practitioners;    Evaluation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-016-0432-0

 received in 2015-09-23, accepted in 2016-03-11,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGeneral practitioners play an important role in the primary care of adolescents in both community and clinical settings. Yet studies show that GPs can lack confidence, skills and knowledge in adolescent health. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an innovative training intervention on medical participants’ knowledge and confidence as adolescent health educators in a school setting.Methods15 general practitioners, 12 general practice registrars and 18 medical students participated in an adolescent health education workshop followed by field experience in health education sessions in secondary schools. The mixed method design included a pre and post intervention survey and focus group interviews.ResultsMean scores on the Confidence to Teach scale increased significantly (3.34 ± 0.51 to 4.09 ± 0.33) (p < .001) as did confidence to communicate with adolescents (3.64 ± 0.48 to 4.19 ± 0.33) (p < .001). Mean knowledge scores increased significantly (7.00 ± 1.22 to 8.98 ± 1.11) (p < .001). Participants highlighted the value of learning about adolescent health issues and generic teaching skills especially lesson planning and design, practicing experiential teaching strategies and finding the ‘sweet spot’ when communicating with adolescents. Some participants reported that these skills would transfer to the practice setting.ConclusionAn applied training intervention that uses evidence-based, experiential teaching strategies and focuses on developing knowledge and practical teaching skills appropriate for the health education of adolescents can enhance knowledge and confidence to engage in community-based adolescent health education.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Van de Mortel et al. 2016