Development and Evaluation of the Online Addiction Medicine Certificate: Free Novel Program in a Canadian Setting.
JMIR Med Educ
; 5(1): e12474, 2019 May 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31127722
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Despite the enormous bur-den of disease attributable to drug and alcohol addiction, there remain major challenges in implementing evi-dence-based addiction care and treatment modalities. This is partly because of a persistent lack of accessible, specialized training in addiction medicine. In response, a new online certificate in addiction medicine has been established in Vancouver, Canada, free of charge to participants globally.OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study was to evaluate and examine changes in knowledge acquisition among health care professionals before and after the completion of an online certificate in addiction medicine.METHODS:
Learners enrolled in a 17-module certificate program and completed pre- and postknowledge tests using online multiple-choice questionnaires. Knowledge acquisition was then evaluated using a repeated measures t test of mean test scores before and after the online course. Following the certificate completion, a subset of learners completed the online course evaluation form.RESULTS:
Of the total 6985 participants who registered for the online course between May 15, 2017 and February 22, 2018, 3466 (49.62%) completed the online pretest questionnaire. A total of 1010 participants completed the full course, achieving the required 70% scores. TThe participants self-reported working in a broad range of health-related fields, including nursing (n=371), medicine (n=92), counseling or social work (n=69), community health (n=44), and pharmacy (n=34). The median graduation year was 2010 (n=363, interquartile range 2002-2015). Knowledge of the addiction medicine increased significantly postcertificate (mean difference 28.21; 95% CI 27.32 to 29.10; P<.001). Physicians scored significantly higher on the pretest than any other health discipline, whereas the greatest improvement in scores was seen in the counseling professions and community outreach.CONCLUSIONS:
This free, online, open-access certificate in addiction medicine appeared to improve knowledge of learners from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. Scaling up low threshold learning opportunities may further advance addiction medicine training, thereby helping to narrow the evidence-to-practice gap.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Evaluation_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
JMIR Med Educ
Year:
2019
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: