Faculty Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.
Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
Aust Occup Ther J. 2021 Aug;68(4):327-335. doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12731. Epub 2021 Apr 16.
Members of the public expect occupational therapists to provide evidence-based practice. Participation in professional development activities is essential to update knowledge and acquire skills to enable delivery of evidence-based assessment and intervention. Therapists commonly choose to participate in professional development through attending training workshops. Little is known about occupational therapists' preference of how continuing professional development training programmes should be designed and delivered.
An online quantitative survey of occupational therapists working with older people in Australia, conducted June to September 2018, incorporated a discrete choice experiment to elicit and estimate preferences for professional development training when acquiring skills in delivering an evidence-based intervention. A series of questions asked participants to choose one of two options for training, each differing in terms of attributes (level of recognition, mode of learning, follow-up post-training and cost to establish willingness to pay). Statistical analyses were conducted according to recommended practice in the field of choice-modelling.
A total of 108 responses were received from occupational therapists practicing around Australia. Therapists reported a strong preference for receiving post-training support to implement their new skills in practice and would be willing to pay an additional A$200 for training that included this option. They also highly regarded achieving 'certification' in their new skill (willing to pay an additional A$100) and having the opportunity to become a 'Master Trainer' in the future (willing to pay an additional A$200).
This study generates new knowledge about aspects of a professional development training programme that occupational therapists' value and aspects that they are willing to compromise on when acquiring new skills that they intend to use in their practice. These findings can influence the training programme design utilised by those working in implementation research and providers of continuing professional development for health professionals.
公众期望治疗师提供基于证据的实践。参与专业发展活动对于更新知识和获取技能以实现基于证据的评估和干预至关重要。治疗师通常选择通过参加培训研讨会来参与专业发展。关于职业治疗师对如何设计和提供继续专业发展培训课程的偏好，知之甚少。
2018 年 6 月至 9 月，对在澳大利亚从事老年人工作的职业治疗师进行了一项在线定量调查，其中包含离散选择实验，以了解和估计在获得提供基于证据的干预措施的技能时对专业发展培训的偏好。一系列问题要求参与者从两种培训选择中选择一种，每种选择在属性（认可程度、学习模式、培训后跟进和建立意愿支付的成本）方面有所不同。根据选择建模领域的推荐实践进行了统计分析。
共收到来自澳大利亚各地的 108 名职业治疗师的回复。治疗师报告说，他们强烈希望在实践中获得新技能的培训后支持，并愿意额外支付 200 澳元接受包括此选项的培训。他们还非常重视获得新技能的“认证”（愿意额外支付 100 澳元）和将来有机会成为“大师培训师”（愿意额外支付 200 澳元）。
本研究产生了有关职业治疗师重视的继续专业发展培训计划的新知识，以及他们在获取打算在实践中使用的新技能时愿意妥协的方面。这些发现可以影响实施研究人员和卫生专业人员继续专业发展提供者所使用的培训计划设计。
