Developing and evaluating a course programme to enhance existential communication with cancer patients in general practice

AbstractObjective: Our objective was to describe the development and evaluation of a course programme in existential communication targeting general practitioners (GPs).Design: The UK Medical Research Council’s (MRC) framework for complex intervention research was used as a guide for course development and evaluation and was furthermore used to structure this paper. The development phase included: identification of existing evidence, description of the theoretical framework of the course, designing the intervention and deciding for types of evaluation. In the evaluation phase we measured self-efficacy before and after course participation. To explore further processes of change we conducted individual, semi-structured telephone interviews with participants.Subjects and setting: Twenty practising GPs and residentials in training to become GPs from one Danish region (mean age 49).Results: The development phase resulted in a one-day vocational training/continuing medical education (VT/CME) course including t...