Year
2014
Department
Faculty of Social Sciences
Recommended Citation
Barnett, Stephen Robert, The role of virtual communities of practice in overcoming isolation and improving knowledge sharing in general practice training in Australia, thesis, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, 2014. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4211
Abstract
General Practice training can be isolating. This isolation can lead doctors to choose to work decreased hours and have a lower intention to work in rural areas, with retention of GP registrars in rural areas an ongoing problem. Professional isolation can occur due to barriers to knowledge sharing, such as the structure of general practice in which registrars are alone in a room with a patient, and geographic barriers imposed by the large distances between registrars in rural and regional training programs.
Virtual Communities of Practice are a method of improving knowledge sharing and overcoming isolation that have shown clear benefit in the business literature and are also widely used in education. VCoPs have a more limited literature base in healthcare.
The aims of this research were to: review the international literature on VCoPs for GP training; ascertain whether VCoPs for GP training are acceptable to GP registrars and supervisors; explore how a VCoP for GP training would be designed and implemented; and ultimately discover whether a VCoP for GP training has benefits for registrars and supervisors in overcoming professional isolation and improving knowledge sharing.
FoR codes (2008)
080702 Health Informatics, 111717 Primary Health Care, 130209 Medicine, Nursing and Health Curriculum and Pedagogy, 130213 Vocational Education and Training Curriculum and Pedagogy
Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.