Evaluation of the partners in research course: a patient and researcher co-created course to build capacity in patient-oriented research

BACKGROUND: In the past decade, patient-oriented research (POR) has been at the forefront of healthcare research in Canada because it has the potential to make research more meaningful and relevant to patient needs. Despite this growing emphasis on and expectation to conduct POR, there is limited guidance about how to apply POR in practice. To address this capacity building need, the Knowledge Translation (KT) Program and patient partners co-designed, delivered, and evaluated Partners in Research (PiR), a 2-month online course for patients and researchers to collectively learn how to conduct and engage in POR. METHODS: PiR was delivered to 4 cohorts of patients and researchers between 2017 and 2018. For each cohort, we evaluated the impact of the course on participants’ knowledge, self-efficacy, intentions, and use of POR using surveys at 3 time points: baseline, post-course and 6-months post-course. We also monitored the process of course design and delivery by assessing implementation quality of the PiR course. Participants were asked to rate their satisfaction with course format, course materials, quality of delivery and their level of engagement via a 7-point Likert scale in the post-course survey. RESULTS: A total of 151 participants enrolled in the PiR course throughout the 4 cohorts. Of these, 49 patients and 33 researchers (n = 82 participants) consented to participate in the course evaluation. Process and outcome evaluations collected over a 9-month period indicated that participation in the PiR course increased knowledge of POR concepts for patients (p < .001) and for researchers (p < .001) from pre-course to post-course timepoints. Likewise, self-efficacy to engage in POR increased from baseline to post-course for both patients (p < .001) and researchers (p < .001). Moreover, participants reported high levels of satisfaction with content, delivery and interactive components of the course. CONCLUSIONS: The PiR course increased capacity in POR for both researchers and patients. This work enhances our understanding of how to design useful and engaging education opportunities to increase patient and researcher capacity in POR. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40900-021-00316-8.