6for6: a rural/remote research skills faculty development program two years down the road

Introduction: 6for6 is a research skills training program for rural physicians in the mostly rural Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, and in the remote Canadian territory of Nunavut.
Objectives: 6for6 addresses rural/remote physicians' research barriers and provides the training, support and expert mentorship they need to explore research questions relevant to them and their communities. These resources also allow them to contribute to a growing rural research network of physicians from the three regions supported.
Aims: This presentation will address lessons learned two years into the three year pilot of 6for6 with recommendations and an outline of our program development strategy for those interested in a similar research skills strategy for distributed faculty development.
Methods: This is a three phase mixed-methods project:
(1) Needs assessment to determine the research skills and services needed by rural physicians;
(2) Development of the curriculum around the results of the needs assessment and its implementation;
(3) Continuous improvements to the program based on an iterative participatory action approach.
Results: There are global improvements in participant's self-reported knowledge and attitudes toward the research topics covered and assessments of social capital indicate that participant's research connectivity is improving within and outside their region. We utilize ongoing program evaluation principals and data to continuously fine tune the program to better support participants.
Conclusions: 6for6 is an innovative education initiative in rural medicine that is fostering research in rural areas of Canada.

This abstract was presented at the Innovative Solutions in Remote Healthcare - 'Rethinking Remote' conference, 23-24 May 2016, Inverness, Scotland.