Pilot of a Training Format for Clinicians' Continuing Professional Development: Open House With Rotating Short...

Access to continuing professional development offered at lunchtime is limited by hospital scheduling that has staff members taking their lunch breaks at different times. To overcome this barrier, we developed a three-part training format with (1) a focus group segment soliciting participants' opinions on the training's target behavior, (2) a didactic segment introducing tools to support the behavior, and (3) a question-and-answer segment about the session topic. We rotated through these segments, each 15 minutes long, over 3 hours. Participants could join at any segment and experience the full curriculum after 45 minutes.

We piloted this training format five times at three hospitals. Our training aimed to encourage clinicians to consistently inform involuntary patients about their Mental Health Act rights. We gauged the effect of the training and participants' opinions of the session using the Continuing Professional Development Reaction questionnaire and a session evaluation, respectively.

Continuing Professional Development-Reaction results (n = 80) showed a detectable increase in clinicians' intent to consistently give involuntary patients rights advice. Participants reported finding the training organized, informative, and valuable.

The open house with rotating short segments is a feasible and adaptable training format to engage clinicians in voluntary continuing professional development.