The Foundation for Medical Practice Education

The Foundation for Medical Practice Education (FMPE) is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to the development, production, and evaluation of educational programs for community-based family medicine and general practitioners. The Foundation was developed to administer a successful innovative educational program initiated at McMaster University in 1992; it subsequently became a national program in which several Canadian universities participate. This educational program, called The Practice Based Small Group (PBSG) Learning Program, was developed as a result of a pilot project completed in 1986, in which it was demonstrated that practising family physicians, when given appropriate academic support, felt they were better able to define and satisfy their own learning needs in a small group format than they were by attending traditional CME programs 1 .

The PBSG Learning Program began with 117 physicians organized into 16 small groups. Each group chose one of its members to act as an educational facilitator for the group, and this individual attended a weekend workshop to be trained for this position. The Program provided the groups with written educational materials to guide and support the educational activities of the groups. The PBSG has expanded rapidly and currently supports over 3000 registrants organized into over 400 small groups. These groups exist in all ten Canadian provinces and all Canadian territories, as well as a few groups in the United States , Saudi Arabia , Hong Kong , Kenya and Scotland .

The FMPE presently administers 4 Practice Based Learning Programs (PBLP), the Practice Based Small Group Learning Program (PBSG) , the Practice Based Individual Learning Program (PBIL) , Residency (PBSG) Learning Program and the Practice Based Ad Hoc Small Group Learning Program . These programs award credits in accordance with the highest educational standards of The College of Family Physicians of Canada. The FMPE produces all of its educational materials and conducts its business in both English and French.

The success of the FMPE is attributable to several factors:

1. The development of a true partnership between academic and practising physicians. Community physicians determine the curriculum and write the educational material with support from academically-based general and specialist physicians.
2. The recognition that scientifically sound, critically appraised information is a prerequisite for the development of educational material, but not its only prerequisite. Educational programs must also be designed to address issues in the context of community practice that differ from those in which clinical research is carried out.
3. The recognition that reflective learning initiated from practice experience is the key to successful self-directed lifelong learning.
4. The recognition that carefully conducted evaluation is the key to program improvement. The FMPE collaborates with Canadian universities, The College of Family Physicians of Canada and other non-profit organizations to conduct research studies 2,3 in order to better understand the learning process and changes in practice.

Initiatives

The Foundation's Facilitator Training Workshops have been expanded and revised. More educational theory has been added to provide a better academic background for facilitators and to enhance professional development for faculty from other institutions and communities.

The Residency PBSG Learning Program has received subscriptions from all Anglophone Canadian medical universities, 2 Francophone Canadian medical universities and five international health facilities.

References

1. Premi JN. Problem based, self-directed CME in a group of practising family physicians. J Med Ed . 1988;63:484-486.

2. Premi JN, Shannon S, Hartwick K, et al. Practice-based small group CME. Academic Medicine . 1994;69:800-802.

3. Herbert C, Wakefield JG, Premi J, Wright J, Maclure M, Dormuth C, Legare J, Brett PJ. Better Prescribing Project: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Practice-Based Small-Group Learning Modules and/or Individual Prescribing Portraits on Prescribing to New Patients. ACMC-ACAHO-CAME Annual Meeting, Toronto , Ontario , April 30, 2001.

Wakefield JG, Herbert CP, Brett PJ, Premi J, Legare J, Wright JM, Maclure M, Dormuth C. Processes of Change in Family Practice: A Grounded Theory Analysis of the Experience of an Educational/Feedback Intervention related to Prescribing. ACMC-ACAHO-CAME Annual Meeting, Toronto , Ontario , April 30, 2001.

Herbert C, Maclure M, Wakefield JG, Premi J, Wright J, Dormuth C, Legare J, Brett PJ. A Randomized Controlled Trial in Continuing Education - Lessons Learned from the "Better Prescribing" Project. (poster) ACMC-ACAHO-CAME Annual Meeting, Toronto , Ontario , April 30, 2001.

Suggested Reading : Hartwick K. Continuing medical education: the next generation Informed . 1995;1:8.

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