“Room for improvement” and other takeaways from our Member Value Survey

May 29, 2019 | Author: Dr. Andrew Padmos

2 MIN READ

Organizations benefit from the feedback and guidance of their members. If we don’t ask the tough questions, how can we stay relevant and improve our member value?

With this in mind, late last year we asked Fellows to fill out a Member Value Survey. We were very pleased that more than 4,000 members completed the survey. To minimize fatigue, each respondent was asked a core set of questions before being divided into one of three question streams: continuing professional development (CPD), communications, or needs and perceptions.

Read the Member Value Survey summary report. [PDF version]

If you want more detailed information, click here for the full Member Value Survey report. [PDF version]

Several themes emerged:

Enduring pride of the Fellowship designation

Members hold a great deal of pride in being recognized for having met the Royal College’s educational standards. Eighty-five per cent of survey respondents said they use the Royal College designation (FRCPC or FRCSC). In fact, 32% stated this is their primary reason for membership. Maintaining and heightening the value of this designation is one of our goals.

Desire for a stronger Fellow voice

Members generally do not believe it is easy to have their voices heard. Survey respondents indicated that they do not feel that they have a significant influence over the organization’s priorities. Only 36% graded the Royal College a five or higher on a scale of seven.

Need for greater transparency, valuable communications and more CPD opportunities

Members generally do not have a strong understanding of the organization’s decision-making processes and how resources, including membership dues, are directed. Related, only 67% of survey respondents awarded the Royal College a 5 or above on a scale of 7 for its communications. Some areas for improvement include volume (i.e. reduce it) and content.

In particular, an overwhelming 86% of respondents are either very or somewhat interested in receiving more information on CPD resources. Topics of greatest interest include clinical knowledge/skills (51%), innovation in medicine/new technology (36%), patient safety (32%) and physician wellness (29%).

Digesting and taking action on survey results

While over half of survey respondents rated their overall satisfaction with the Royal College a five or six on a scale of seven, the benchmark satisfaction score was only 64%. This means there is considerable room for improvement.

The image depicts a bar graph tallying survey respondents' overall satisfaction with the Royal College. Responses range from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). In total, 4% of respondents rated the Royal College a "1", 5% picked "2," 7% said "3," 18% said "4," 29% said "5," 25% said "6" and 11% said "7." These results have sparked a lot of internal discussion and reflection. We are using this feedback to guide our member value initiatives — and the planning is already well under way. For example, we are finalizing a new Member Value Strategy to better align and augment our services, and guide our efforts to increase member value and engagement.

Moving forward, we are committed to reporting back about our progress on the action areas highlighted in the Member Value Survey summary report [PDF version]. We will post and share regular updates here in our Royal College Newsroom and highlight these items in future newsletters. In the meantime, please feel welcome to leave a constructive comment (below) or email me at ceo@royalcollege.ca.

We all share in the pride of Royal College Fellowship and the mark of excellence that the FRCPC and FRCSC designations denote. We look forward to augmenting this value and better supporting you in your provision of quality patient care, moving forward.

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Mounir Samy | June 1, 2019

I am a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at the end of his career and who worked extensively with community locally and internationally. The Royal college has not been very relevant to me despite an over 40 years of membership. But I was always proud to add my FRCP (C) title. As a way to leave a legacy and in response to the Global Disruption and its impact on children and youth, I have created an ambitious foundation that recently received its charity number from Revenue Canada Agency. The name of the foundation is « Fondation Aquarium.» in reference to the importance of the family and the inner world. Our beautiful website is « Aquarium Foundation.ca». It would be wonderful to have the help and support of the Royal college in any possible way. It would change for me at last, the abstract intentions of the Royal college into something substantial and beneficial for society. If I have a specific contact at the Royal college, I will be very happy to transmit documentation about the Foundation and an invitation to our inaugural General assembly on June 26th. Thank you for your kind attention PS. I produced a document for the general public to explain the importance of the Foundation, entitled:« I'm not a robot.»...

Andrew Padmos | June 10, 2019

Hi Mournir, I regret that a Royal College representative will not be available to attend your General Assembly on June 26. Thank you for your kind invitation. Please send details of your “Aquarium Foundation” to newsroom@royalcollege.ca and we’ll ensure it’s added to an upcoming newsletter article so that we can make your colleagues aware of your new foundation.

edgardo perez | May 31, 2019

I wonder if the College could develop a strong dept dealing with cont med education and develop flexible approaches to help members achieve their credits. I think that this will increase members satisfaction and reduces the stresses on members. I think that most people are members due to the utilization of the FRCPC I think that in this area,(cme requirements) there is a role for more senior members to do some volunteer work .

Andrew Padmos | June 10, 2019

Hi Edgardo, thank you very much for this suggestion. The Office of Professional Practice and Membership includes a number of support strategies to assist Fellows to identify and implement learning or assessment activities that are relevant to their practices. The Royal College Services Centre provides dedicated staff to assist Fellows to apply the MOC Program’s framework and credit system to their specific practice (you can contact our services centre by phone or email www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/about/help/contact-e). The Royal College has also created a regional education support program, including a series of CPD Educators, along with our Manager, MOC Program and our Director, Continuing Professional Development, to provide personalized support on continuing professional development that is relevant to a Fellow’s clinical, education, administrative or research practice. Finally, we are expanding our role in providing resources (such as accredited self-assessment programs, simulation activities, and tools and templates) to support reflection and the development of plans for improvement. We continue to do more in the future, but I encourage you to explore these current resources available to you and see if they address any particular questions or concerns you may have.

MATTHEW HODGE | May 31, 2019

With 47% of respondents aged 55 or older, some stratification by age would be valuable - do the results vary by age?

Andrew Padmos | June 10, 2019

Hi Matthew, in short: yes. We did some segmentation analysis by career stage, location of practice and other factors. This data provides critical, additional insights related to future member service design and delivery. A few key insights: pride in belonging to the Royal College is strongest among older members; and while early career members indicate lower use of services than other career stages, they have a higher desire to engage with the Royal College, for example through committee involvement and social media. Early career members also expressed higher interest in CPD related to leadership, financial planning and career development. Other parts of our segmentation analysis showed that members who are volunteers, members in smaller communities, and members from Quebec gave higher overall satisfaction scores. If you are interested in receiving the segmentation analysis, please let our membership team know: fellowshipaffairs@royalcollege.ca.

Gil Faclier | May 30, 2019

Other than using my specialist designation, I’m not sure what else the college does for me

Andrew Padmos | June 10, 2019

Hi Gil, thank you for your note. There are many ways to respond to your question—some more abstract than others. The Royal College’s certification and standards for MOC are recognized by regulatory authorities across Canada as the gold standard. Foundationally, the MOC Program that you participate in as part of your Fellowship is one component of your eligibility to be licensed to practice. While much of the Royal College’s focus is on maintaining those high standards for today’s Fellows and future generations of specialists and patients, we also offer an awards and grants program (including funding for professional development), advocacy on a range of health system matters, development and curation of educational content (see the e-learning tab in MAINPORT) and more. A couple of years ago we created a new Office of Professional Practice and Membership to explore ways we can enhance our membership value. This survey was one component of those efforts, the results of which will help shape and influence future directions. We welcome your suggestions on new services that would be of value. To connect with our Membership team, email fellowshipaffairs@royalcollege.ca.

J Zev Shainhouse | May 30, 2019

I consider the group 3. CME requirement an absolute joke. Am I back in grade school where I read a paragraph and answer questions? This is not how responsible physicians need to learn. I suggest you eliminate this requirement If you are unwilling to do so I suggest you provide an acceptable activity one a week (or month) , that counts for a 30-60 minute acceptable session. That will allow accumulating those silly 5 hours per year.

Andrew Padmos | June 10, 2019

Hi J Zev. Assessment is a term that is frequently associated with images of a test or exam—something that is a high-stakes, point-in-time evaluation of an individual’s knowledge, skills or abilities. Educators call this assessment “of learning.” This traditional view of assessment is not what Section 3 is about. Section 3 is focused on leveraging a wide range of approaches, using practice data (from self-assessment programs, simulation, clinical audit, multi-source feedback and various aspects of performance review) with feedback to guide or focus future learning and practice improvement. Engaging in assessment helps us identify what we don’t know (or cannot accurately identify) as research has shown the inaccuracy of physicians’ global self-assessment skills in relation to objective measures of their practices. Assessment is a growing expectation of medical regulators and is embedded in national and international CPD systems across multiple health professions. We would be delighted to work with you to identify how you can best leverage this important section of the MOC Program for your practice. You can contact our Royal College Services Centre by phone or email: www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/about/help/contact-e

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