A Virtual Community of Practice for General Practice Training: a pre-implementation survey using the Health VCoP Framework

摘要: BackgroundProfessional isolation is an important factor in low rural health workforce retention [1]. Isolation can lead to decreased knowledge sharing [2] and can affect the career choices of doctors, including intending to work reduced hours and moving away from rural areas [3-5]. Training for doctors in general practice in Australia can be particularly isolating [3, 4] with trainees, or registrars, spread across large geographic areas, moving between different practices in urban and regional placements, and usually being alone in their consulting room with a patient. These factors of geography and structure are barriers to knowledge sharing, impeding the natural communities of practice that form in medical training.Communities of practice (CoPs) are “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”[6]. CoPs reflect the master and apprentice knowledge sharing that occurs with between senior doctors and those in training. In knowledge management terms, there are two types of knowledge being shared in this type of master and apprentice learning. Firstly, explicit knowledge [7] sharing occurs around a topic; for example the details of which drugs are appropriate for a clinical condition. This can be referred to as the ‘know what’. Secondly, and most importantly, CoPs help participants share tacit knowledge [7]. This is the ‘know how’of putting that knowledge into practice. For example, how to ensure a clinical condition is identified from a primary care database, that the patient is recalled, that they are encouraged to take medications, and how