This article is taken from the Spring 2014 issue of LymphLine, the LSN's quarterly newsletter available to all LSN members.
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BMJ Learning module - two years old and still going strong
Those of you who are long standing members of the LSN will know all about our BMJ Learning module, but for those who are new to us... three years ago, the LSN decided to produce an online learning module about chronic oedema/lymphoedema, specifically aimed at reaching General Practitioners and other doctors with information about the condition. GPs are a notoriously challenging group to reach with information, partly because they are so very busy and also because they are bombarded with literature from numerous organisations every day.
We decided that as all doctors need to carry out a certain number of hours training each year, Continuous Professional Development or CPD for short, we would work with British Medical Journal Learning to produce a quality learning module that would earn CPD points for those doctors who completed the module. Using LSN funding and the expertise of BMJ Learning, Professor Peter Mortimer and ourselves, the multi-media unit went live two years ago, our aim was to hopefully reach 2,000 UK doctors.
LSN members played their part by taking specially designed postcards advertising the module to their local practices for us and we held our breath and crossed everything waiting to see if our significant financial investment would bear fruit.
The figures for the module after two years have exceeded all our expectations; a total of 4,578 individuals have completed the module which includes 2,596 doctors from the UK. The other completers are made up of doctors, nurses, midwives, educators and researchers from 102 countries around the world. Interestingly, it was also completed by two Romanian veterinarians.
Not only that, but pre and post module testing proves that those who have completed the module knew more about the condition after they had done the unit than they did before and the comments left on the BMJ Learning module have been fantastic. We have also been delighted to present a poster on the project at the Royal College of General Practitioners annual conference and have won an award for it from the British Lymphology Society.
As one of the doctors who completed the module said: “This module was incredibly useful, I now feel more empowered to help patients with this problem that I previously shrugged my shoulders for.”
The project has been an overwhelming success and it would not have been possible without your donations to the LSN and your efforts in distributing the postcards for us, so thank you!
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