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K. Mattick1,2, A. Inman3,2
1NHS, Bath, United Kingdom, 2ADAPT, National, United Kingdom, 3University of St Mark and St John Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom
Background: ADAPT; ‘Physiotherapists for Global Health’ is a recognised Professional Network of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Members connect on their passion and experience of working in low resourced and humanitarian settings. There are currently 145 members, mostly from the UK, with some international representation within the group. An elected committee manages and facilitates membership and events.
Membership includes annual conferences, webinars, resources, and email newsletters sharing relevant opportunities. ADAPT members anecdotally feedback on the value gained in networking with other like-minded Physiotherapists.
During the COVID-19 pandemic all ADAPT activities moved online. This virtual move, coincidentally, created greater participation opportunities for international members and enhanced transnational learning.
ADAPT committee now want to harness this learning and grow their global membership. To do this effectively, there is a need to explore current literature and recommendations from other virtual networks.
Previous research into Virtual ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP) theory may offer the structure to guide ADAPT’s development. Definitions of CoP are relatable to ADAPT as a group of people sharing a passion about a topic, who seek to deepen their knowledge in this area through shared learning and collaboration.
Membership includes annual conferences, webinars, resources, and email newsletters sharing relevant opportunities. ADAPT members anecdotally feedback on the value gained in networking with other like-minded Physiotherapists.
During the COVID-19 pandemic all ADAPT activities moved online. This virtual move, coincidentally, created greater participation opportunities for international members and enhanced transnational learning.
ADAPT committee now want to harness this learning and grow their global membership. To do this effectively, there is a need to explore current literature and recommendations from other virtual networks.
Previous research into Virtual ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP) theory may offer the structure to guide ADAPT’s development. Definitions of CoP are relatable to ADAPT as a group of people sharing a passion about a topic, who seek to deepen their knowledge in this area through shared learning and collaboration.
Purpose: To identify leading theory and learnings from Virtual Community of Practice (vCoP) in healthcare inform the future development of ADAPT.
Methods: An integrative review using PubMed and Google Scholar employing search terms “Community of Practice” (CoP) AND “Virtual”. Inclusion criteria were written in English, published after 2000 and focused on virtual health professional development. Papers were excluded if they did not reference CoP and were not discussing virtual professional development. Themes were drawn from the papers that would inform ADAPTs development Thematic results are presented on reported vCoP benefits, challenges and recommendations.
Results: 15 papers were identified on vCoP for health professional development, incorporating a broad scope of research from scoping reviews to case studies on student and clinician development.
Themes identified on the benefit of vCoP included ‘Geography’, ‘Connection’ and ‘Sharing Knowledge’. Virtual groups overcome geographical barriers and can decrease social isolation for professionals in remote locations. Knowledge exchange enabled increased interprofessional learning with the sharing of evidence-based practice and experiences across institutions, and countries.
Challenging themes identified included ‘Technical Infrastructure’, ‘Participation’ and ‘Time’, as well as potential for low trust between members.
Recommendations from the literature review for overcoming these challenges focused on: creating an encouraging community and a structure to group activities, using facilitators and incorporating face-to-face meetings to build connection. Further advice included using discussion forums and social media groups that are accessible from any device.
Themes identified on the benefit of vCoP included ‘Geography’, ‘Connection’ and ‘Sharing Knowledge’. Virtual groups overcome geographical barriers and can decrease social isolation for professionals in remote locations. Knowledge exchange enabled increased interprofessional learning with the sharing of evidence-based practice and experiences across institutions, and countries.
Challenging themes identified included ‘Technical Infrastructure’, ‘Participation’ and ‘Time’, as well as potential for low trust between members.
Recommendations from the literature review for overcoming these challenges focused on: creating an encouraging community and a structure to group activities, using facilitators and incorporating face-to-face meetings to build connection. Further advice included using discussion forums and social media groups that are accessible from any device.
Conclusions: This initial exploration into vCoP highlighted benefits and recommendations from previous health professional development groups that could be utilised in ADAPTs future development. ADAPT hopes to apply the identified findings to inform future research into the impact ADAPT can have as an international vCoP on professional development and patient care.
Implications: We hope this work and our future research into vCoP will inform other physiotherapy networks growth and sustainability within a digital era.
Funding acknowledgements: None
Keywords:
Community of Practice
Network
Community of Practice
Network
Topics:
Professional practice: other
Education: continuing professional development
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Professional practice: other
Education: continuing professional development
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Reason: Ethics was not required as an integrative review
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
