RESEARCH CAPACITY BUILDING IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE [PHCRED] ::
Basic Critical Thinking Skills

This course of twelve topics, each of approximately one-hour duration, is hosted by Medeserv and is available free of charge to all health professionals within Australia.

Basic Critical Thinking Skills is incorporated into the Med-E-Serv PriMeD curriculum as an on-line workshop and as such is accredited by RACGP as a Group 1 (5 points per hour activity). It is also accredited by RACP for CME points. The whole workshop takes 12 hours but it is made up of 48 units which each take only 15 minutes to complete so you can work through in your own time, any time. Meet many other people with similar interests on the way in the group activities.

You will need to register (FREE) for your access and for your personal learning journal which will automatically update your accumulated points to the RACGP. PriMeD features, including the personal journal, are powered by the Med-E-Serv InTouch identity service which is used by many Colleges and medical societies. You may already have an InTouch username and password, if so enter the Basic Critical Thinking Skills workshop (within PriMeD) now! If not, no problem, register here - it's FREE.

If you are interested in using this material as a resource for small group learning, the content can also be provided for face-to-face workshops. Please contact Dr Lyndal Trevena Ph: +61 2 9818 1400 or email: lyndal@gp.med.usyd.edu.au.

The course aims to introduce clinicians to some of the basic skills required to inform daily clinical decision-making with the latest research-based knowledge.

Over the twelve topics in this course we hope that participants will achieve the following objectives:

1. Be able to critically question some of the decisions made in daily practice including those where there is uncertainty about the best way to proceed
2. Be able to access research-based information that is relevant to the clinical questions
3. Be able to recognise some of the features of good as opposed to poor quality information
4. Be able to discuss research-based knowledge with patients & apply to a clinical decision
5. Be able to evaluate clinical decisions
6. Have an appreciation of some of the issues around new primary care knowledge and inquiry through research

The topics lead you through the following learning plan: