Effect of an Online Continuing Professional Development Course on Physicians’ Intention to Approach a Colleague in Difficulty: Mixed Methods Convergent Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Burnout and psychological distress are prevalent among physicians. Peer support appears to play a protective role, yet little is known about training interventions that motivate physicians to approach peers in difficulty, as such effects are often overlooked or assessed using nonvalidated tools. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the effects of an online continuing professional development (CPD) course designed to increase physicians' intention to approach a colleague in difficulty. METHODS: Physicians who completed a 1-hour asynchronous online CPD course between March 2022 and May 2024 were invited to participate in this mixed methods convergent study. The e-learning course aimed to increase physicians' confidence in approaching colleagues in difficulty by recognizing signs of psychological distress, offering support, and referring them to appropriate resources. Participant characteristics were collected, and behavioral intention to approach a colleague in difficulty along with its determinants were measured pre- and postcourse using the validated CPD-REACTION tool. Differences in mean pre-post intention scores were assessed using 2-tailed paired t tests (n=466) and generalized estimating equations. Factors associated with postcourse intention were examined using multivariate analysis (n=466). Four months later, the proportion of physicians reporting adoption of the behavior was calculated (n=61). Qualitative responses to open-ended questions were analyzed thematically using behavior change models, and behavior change techniques used in the course were identified. Quantitative and qualitative results were triangulated. We reported results following STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) and SRQR (Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research) guidelines for quantitative and qualitative analyses, respectively. RESULTS: =0.22). Four months later, 41% (25/61; 95% CI 28.6%-54.3%) of participants reported having approached a colleague in difficulty. Frequently reported reasons for intention to adopt behavior were beliefs about capabilities, beliefs about consequences, and knowledge. Quantitative and qualitative results converged on beliefs about capabilities but diverged regarding beliefs about consequences. A total of 7 behavioral change techniques were identified in the CPD course: goal setting, increasing competence, planning, persuasive communication, behavior-related information, modeling, and behavioral experiments. CONCLUSIONS: This online CPD course increased physicians' intention to approach a colleague in difficulty. The results highlight beliefs about capabilities as a key determinant of this behavioral intention. The study suggests that online learning has strong potential to raise awareness about peer support and ultimately build a culture of care among health care workers.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.018 | 0.040 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".