Competency-based online microlearning programme for primary health care professionals

Primary health care professionals play an important role in cancer prevention, because they are the first and main entry point of the population into the health system. This privileged situation enables them to provide a space to promote help-seeking behaviours by patients and their families, give advice, answer questions, and disseminate personalized preventive messages (such as those included in the Latin America and the Caribbean Code Against Cancer). In addition, in some cases these health professionals also provide evidence-based interventions aimed at primary prevention of cancer (e.g. human papillomavirus vaccine, smoking cessation interventions) and even secondary prevention (e.g. cervical cytology).

Competence is the habitual use of the necessary abilities to perform a skill to a specific standard and to apply the appropriate knowledge and attitudes to achieve optimal performance of a professional activity. The competency-based model of education focuses on the attainment of these skills. Primary health care professionals often have little time for continuing education, which is why the Latin America and the Caribbean Code Against Cancer offers an education programme in the form of microlearning through “microcapsules” or “learning pills” that focus on a single definite idea or topic.

The competency-based online microlearning programme for primary health care professionals constitutes “Level 2 information” of the Latin America and the Caribbean Code Against Cancer, and aims to train these professionals in primary and secondary cancer prevention issues relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean.

The general objectives of this programme are to ensure that professionals:

• Understand the relationship between various risk factors and cancer, and get to know the most relevant evidence-based primary and secondary prevention measures for Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Adopt and appropriate the recommendations of the Latin America and the Caribbean Code Against Cancer, so that they transfer knowledge to the general population (i.e. the patients, their families, and the community) in their clinical practice and even to their peers, and refer patients to other services when necessary.
• Increase their technical skills and active outreach capacity to include cancer prevention counselling in their clinical practice (“teachable moment”).