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Factors in Physician Performance (Practice Profile) Resources

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The following are suggested resources to address learning opportunities identified when completing the Practice Profile.

*Please note this selection is not meant to be comprehensive or complete, and inclusion is not necessarily an endorsement by CPSO.

Peer Support 

  • Canadian Physician Coaches Network offers highly skilled and certified coaches with experience in supporting physicians and other healthcare professionals. The not-for-profit organization can provide one-on-one coaching support, as well as workshops and educational events to enhance leadership, managing workplace challenges, practice transformation, quality improvement, career management and sustaining wellness while practising challenging professions.
  • Primary Care Academic Detailing Service, Centre for Effective Practice
    One-on-one visits, tailored discussions on different clinical topic areas. 2023 topics include: Type 2 diabetes, anxiety and depression, and fall prevention and management.
  • The Foundation for Medical Practice Education offers two Programs:
    • The Small Group Practice-Based Learning Program (previously called PBSG) helps family physicians develop a supportive network in which group members meet regularly to discuss problem-based modules in a way that facilitates change in knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Topics cover a wide array of primary care practice issues.
      The Individual Practice-Based Learning Program is based on the same educational principles as the group learning program, but designed for individual physicians who cannot, or prefer not to, meet in an ongoing group setting.
  • Member Support Program, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Provides personalized support and educational advice. Contributes to improving the safety of medical care and helps CMPA members by easing stress, fostering self-confidence, and returning satisfaction to the practice of medicine.
  • Practising Well, Ontario College of Family Physicians
    An active and engaged online community that gives participants access to a deep well of knowledge to make practice easier today and to improve it in the future. Includes: Practising Well Community of Practice, Practising Well Information Exchange, and Practising Well Peer to Peer Connect. 
  • Project ECHO
    Links expert inter-professional teams at an academic hub with primary care providers in local communities. Primary care providers become part of a learning and support community, where they receive mentoring and feedback from the team of experts. Variety of topics.

Communication

Courses, eLearning Modules 

  • Canadian Physician Coaches Network offers professional coaches, accustomed to supporting physicians in their professional roles; can provide one-on-one coaching around communication issues. 
  • Successful Patient Interactions – Online, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Helps physicians and other healthcare providers communicate more effectively with their patients.
  • Clinical Communication Program — Online, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Intensive, structured and hands-on interpersonal skills training program to enhance doctor-patient communication, and create significant behavioural and attitudinal change. Includes three-day workshop and mentoring/coaching over a period of six months.
  • Motivational interviewing: Introduction and application, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
    Online program on clinical method of motivational interviewing, indicating its purpose, how it is used, and how it works and is used as a model for communicating care to clients and patients to establish therapeutic relationships with patients that are characterized by partnership.
  • Informed Consent eLearning Module, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Outlines three key elements of a valid informed consent, physicians’ legal obligations to communicate to patients, and the importance of discussing and documenting risks related to prescribing medications.
  • Informed Discharge eLearning Module, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Explains the clinical and medico-legal importance of the discharge discussion, physicians’ obligations when delegating the discharge discussion, the role of educational handouts and the importance of documentation.
  • Effective Team Interactions — Online, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Provides practical strategies for effectively interacting with colleagues in a team environment.

Other Online Resources 

Physician Health & Wellness 

  • Physician Wellness page on CPSO website
    Links to a curated selection of resources on physician wellness.
  • Ontario Medical Association
    • Well-Being
      Website with links, articles, videos and exercises that focus on physician self-care and resilience.
    • Could you be burned out?
      Resources to help physicians assess their own level of well-being, including professional fulfillment, quality of life, happiness, engagement and dimensions of distress.
    • Physician Health Program
      Provides a range of services to physicians, aligning with the belief that health matters and education, early intervention and treatment are important in helping sustain a healthy medical workforce.
  • Canadian Medical Association
  • Joy in Work, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
    Website offering variety of resources to create a positive work environment and ensure the commitment to deliver high-quality care to patients, thereby reducing the risk of burnout.
  • Physician Wellness page, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Variety of resources on the importance of physician wellness, CMPA and other services.
  • The aging physician: Maintaining competence and practising safely, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Considerations when a physician’s cognitive and physical abilities may affect safe medical care.

Professionalism 

  • Code of Ethics, Canadian Medical Association
    Ethical framework for Canadian physicians, focusing on the core activities of medicine — e.g., health promotion, advocacy, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, palliation, education and research.
  • Good Practices: Professionalism and ethics, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Topics include: professionalism; boundaries; cultural safety; privacy and confidentiality.
  • Four Principles of Family Medicine, College of Family Physicians of Canada
    Webpage outlining the principles of being a family physician.
  • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion page on CPSO website
    Links to a curated selection of resources on equity, diversity and inclusion.
  • Privacy and Confidentiality eLearning Module, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Describes the sharing of a patient’s personal health information in the circle of care and when a patient’s express consent is required for the release of personal health information.
  • Recognizing boundary issues, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Boundaries create an appropriate therapeutic distance between physician and patient, and clarifies their respective roles and expectations. Article presents four case examples that illustrate boundary crossings and boundary violations.
  • CPD eCoach, UBC CPD, Faculty of Medicine
    Online self-directed assessment tool to explore one’s CPD needs.
  • Good Practices: The healthcare system: Just Culture, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    "Just Culture" is a philosophy, an everyday set of principles about how we engage as teams, hold each other accountable, and identify and fix problems before harm occurs. A just culture is essential to empowering physicians and other healthcare workers to provide safe care. Topics include: A just culture is values-based; human behavioural choices; challenges to creating a just culture — role of biases.

Practice Management

Courses, eLearning Modules 

  • Ontario Medical Association Webinars
    Practice Management, series of 10 webinars providing a business overview to physicians on concepts required to operate efficient practices. Topics: patient enrollment models; health privacy issues in the clinical setting; providing virtual care; optimizing practice efficiency (scheduling, human resources, documentation); medicolegal challenges; challenging patient encounters; online appointment booking; transitioning to an FHO. 
  • Canadian Medical Protective Association Workshops
    Fully accredited by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), the two-step program aims to support physicians in making improvements to their test follow-up processes. The Test Results Follow Up workshop is designed to help physicians build a reliable follow-up system for test results in their practice. Participants who complete this workshop are eligible to apply for the Commitment to Change (CTC) program. The CTC program provides participants access to a CMPA Commitment Coach who will help them identify and set achievable goals for meaningful improvements in their test follow-up techniques.

Other Online Resources

  • Managing your practice, Ontario Medical Association
    Resources, toolkits and information on how to run a medical practice, including starting, operating and closing a medical practice.
  • Advanced Access and Efficiency,  Ontario Health, Quality
    As part of its work to foster quality improvement capacity in Ontario’s health system, Health Quality Ontario developed Advanced Access & Efficiency resources and strategies to assist primary care practices to see patients on the day they call in or on a day of their choosing. The program is designed to streamline the day, enrich the experiences of patients and increase staff satisfaction.
  • Puddester, D., & Patel, H. (2013). The Time Management Guide. (available for purchase)
    Topics include: Basic concepts; practical tools; interpersonal skills for effective time management; investing in yourself.
  • Closing or leaving a practice: Tips for primary care physicians, Canadian Medical Protective Association
    Article outlines physician responsibilities when planning to close or leave a practice due to retirement, illness or other reasons.