Abstract Body

1. Background:

The use of social media, online websites, and video communities is on the rise. Many patients/parents have concerns about their children and even their own electronic media use, which in excess may lead to adverse outcomes in mental health, quality of sleep, and performance in school/work. Nonetheless, there is a lack of guidelines or formal educational resources provided to primary care physicians on how to counsel patients/parents on the safe use of electronic media. This workshop is presented by the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Patient Education Committee and is based on practicing and applying concepts and approaches to initiate discussion on safe electronic media use.

2. Learning objectives:

describe the effects of electronic media and health outcomes;

employ useful communication approaches when educating patients and parents about electronic media use;

effectively utilize both screening tools and strategies to “unplug”.

3. Methods and timetable:

Overview of patient-education and shared-decision making methods primer on the effects of electronic media and health outcomes (15min).

Facilitated break-out session into 4 smaller groups, case studies taken from real-life encounters identifies common causes and solutions to electronic media overuse. Role-playing of the clinician and patient/parent scenario will maximize experiential learning (60min).

4. Results / Conclusions:

Reflective group discussions, self-assessment and peer assessment will be utilized for the attendees to critically evaluate their knowledge gained through this workshop. Based on the objectives, the presenter will provide prompts as starting point for the attendees to critically reflect on their practice and cognitive process.