A continuing medical education initiative for Canadian primary care physicians: The driving and dementia toolkit: A pre- and postevaluation of knowledge, confidence gained, and satisfaction

This study examined the effect of the Driving and Dementia Toolkit on physician knowledge and confidence gained and the anticipated change in patient assessment and evaluated the extent to which physicians found the material to be useful. Before receiving the driving toolkit, 301 randomly selected primary care physicians received a copy of the pretest questionnaire; 145 responded and met the eligibility criteria. This group was then sent the toolkit, a satisfaction a survey, and a posttest questionnaire. Physicians were faxed the questionnaires (with up to three reminders) and telephoned if necessary. Changes in pre- and posttest results were analyzed using the McNemar test and Wilcoxon signed rank test nonparametric procedures included in SPSS, Version 10.0, and paired-samples t test. Pre- and posttest data were available and could be matched for 86 physicians (59.3%) response. Knowledge and confidence increased significantly (P less than or equal to .05) for most of the toolkit content questions. There was also a clear intent on the part of study participants to begin including additional pertinent questions in the patient/caregivers interview when assessing a patient's fitness to drive. On a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high), overall satisfaction with the toolkit rated an average of 8.4. Use of the toolkit resulted in a clear improvement in physicians' reported knowledge of and confidence in dealing with dementia and driving. Future applications of similar innovative continuing education models can be used for other areas such as disclosure of dementia diagnosis, capacity assessments, or end-of life issues.