09MayPP

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Bringing the Experience of Physician Moderators into an Electronic Community of Practice for International Medical Graduates on the College of Physicians & Surgeons of BC’s Temporary Register
By Harry Karlinsky and Tunde Olatunbosun
As of January 1^st 2008, International Medical Graduates (IMGs) on the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia’s Temporary Register are required to attend a two-day orientation conference that provides them with a comprehensive orientation to the medical system in British Columbia. This orientation conference is a component of the BC Physician Integration Program (BC-PIP) and is organized by the UBC Division of Continuing Professional Development. The orientation conference introduces these new physicians to diverse content areas such as on health care in BC, the roles and responsibilities of provincial and national physician organizations, on accessing educational and clinical resources & supporting patient care, on ethics, liability community and & professionalism, as well as practice management. Understanding the content areas, as well as successfully passing licensing examinations are challenges that exist along the path of these IMGs striving for full licensure and successful practice integration. An electronic community of practice (eCOP) was created as an ongoing support strategy, and made available for these new IMGs as a medium for them to network, maintain relationships and dialogue as following the orientation conference.
This eCOP provides IMGs with functions such as the ability to: (i) work towards solving common challenges with peers; (ii) engage in ongoing learning and practice improvement; (iii) share experiences, knowledge and common resources for daily practice; (iv) networking and relationship building; that go beyond geographic limitations. Conference speakers as well as project team members are also registered on the BC-PIP eCOP. To date there are just over 200 members on this eCOP.
The funding we received from TEKTIC allowed us to identify and engage two BC physicians (one specialist and one family physician) to facilitate and moderate the eCOP. Both these physicians are former IMGs that are acquainted with the needs, requirements, and challenges of being an IMG. These moderators are involved in adding relevant content, as well as leading and facilitating discussions within the eCOP. Over the past 11 months, they have stimulated discussion on a variety of topic areas such as: forming study groups, managing a practice, billing, licensing exam preparation, travel restrictions, adoption and usage of EMRs. Within the coming months, we will be evaluating members of the eCOP. General research areas of inquiry will be IMG perceptions of the effectiveness of the eCOP (e.g. as measured by feedback on features that worked well, areas in need of improvement). We will also be exploring the role that moderators can and should play in guiding an eCOPs’ activitie, how an eCOP should be administrated, and how to optimize its use to best facilitate effective knowledge translation to IMGs.