CoNO Education Program Survey - Results To-date

Last month, we distributed an Education Program Survey to Registrants, asking for their input on the potential for additional educational programming by the College. We’re actively considering an approach that would see these sessions:

• Be held virtually.
• Be offered at no cost.
• Be presented by people who know the topic area.
• Be either a single presenter or a panel presentation.
• Include a slide presentation that participants could print.
• Be in a congenial environment.
• Drill down into key regulatory topics such as advertising, record keeping and other standards.
• Have CE credits associated with them, in particular jurisprudence credits.
• Allow Registrants to gain insights into all things CoNO.

The primary question this survey asks is whether you believe we should be offering programming in this area. So far, with 21 responses, the unanimous feedback is “yes”.

In fact, the “yes” is quite resounding! A few of the comments that we have received thus far include:

• “I think that this is a great idea. Understanding the scope of practice, our standards and guideline from our regulating body would provide a level of confidence in the content.”
• “I think the college is the best to teach regulations and best practices.”
• “It is critically important that the profession understand what is necessary to ensure a professional, ethical and accountable delivery of service which maximizes service delivery and minimizes public mistrust.”
• “I think this is a very good idea. Many NDs are afraid to reach out to CONO with questions for fear that they will get in trouble. I think doing an educational series like this will help to decrease the number of NDs reported, improve the relationship between NDs and CONO, as well as clear up any misconceptions that may exist surrounding the regulation of NDs in Ontario.”

It’s important to note that the kind of programming being contemplated is different that the programming offered by our system partners, the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors and the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. The educational programming both organizations offer is also critical to the continued development of the profession and more focused on issues related to naturopathic medicine than regulation.

Going back to the survey: secondary questions in the survey ask for feedback on a list of potential topics as well as the number of sessions that should be offered in a year, the best days for delivery and the best timing. As you might expect since everyone’s schedules differ, the responses are quite varied.

Here is a general sense of what we’re hearing:

• Number of sessions annually: 6-8.
• Best day of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Friday.
• Best time of delivery: At or close to the lunch hour.
• Best duration of education session: 1 hour to 1.5 hours.
• Most common topics selected: telepractice, EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion), consent, scope.

One theme that does seem to be emerging is the desire to see using the information we garner from our various processes, especially complaints, to proactively address emerging issues to reduce the number of similar complaints in the future. We have been developing this type of approach for some time and we anticipate being able to move more formally into this kind of regulatory approach over the next one to two years.

It’s exciting to see that the profession is very much on the same page as us in this regard.

In closing, thank you to those who have participated in this survey. For those who have not but might be interested, it isn’t too late. The survey will remain open for another week or two. We invite you to have your say!