Facilitator-led VEGA uses a group-based approach where participants complete the Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action Project (VEGA) content as a virtual or face-to-face workshop. In this study, all workshops will be virtual to prevent social gathering during COVID-19.

If a participant is randomized to this arm, the active control (AC) arm, they will be informed that they need to attend a facilitator-led VEGA session via virtual workshop format. The AC intervention will be facilitated via Zoom technology, by two trained facilitators with between 10 to 20 participants in each workshop (keeping the recommended 10:1 participant-to-facilitator ratio) and will last approximately 3 hours. The workshop approach is delivered by trained facilitators and is standardized via the use of a flexibly structured facilitator's guide. Facilitator-led VEGA will deliver material didactically with synchronous lecturing, use case-based role play, and include group-based polling.

Self-directed VEGA uses an approach where participants complete the Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action Project (VEGA) content online as a self-directed educational activity, at their own pace in a series of modules. Individuals will register to access the VEGA Educational Resources site. Participants have the option of completing the self-directed VEGA arm in either English or French as the VEGA Educational Resources site offers the content in French and English.

If a participant is randomized to the experimental arm, they will be asked to complete the self-directed VEGA at their convenience, within one week of when they are informed they have been asked to complete the self-directed VEGA program. It will take approximately 3 hours for participants to complete all modules.

Participants will read didactic material, complete case-based animated simulations, and complete individual multiple-choice questions with response feedback.

VEGA is a novel education intervention that has the potential to improve the preparation of healthcare and social service providers (HHSPs) to be able to effectively recognize and respond to intimate partner violence (IPV) and related forms of family violence, including child maltreatment (CM), in their clinical encounters. VEGA was developed based on systematic reviews and consultation with individuals belonging to 22 national healthcare and social service organizations, including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. VEGA follows a competency-based framework and a participatory, encounter-based curriculum that includes four learning modules: (a) the epidemiology of IPV and CM; (b) strategies for safely recognizing and responding to (i) IPV and (ii) CM; and (c) principles for ensuring safe clinical encounters for IPV and CM discussions.

The RC will track the number of residents who meet eligibility criteria, our aims are that we will recruit a total of 80 participants within 8 weeks, an average of 10 residents per week.

The RC will track the number of residents who consent to the study and agree to be randomized to either self-directed or facilitator-led VEGA education approaches, both overall and per week of recruitment. Our aim is that the proportion of residents who contact the research team about participation and who consent to randomization will be 75% or greater.

The RC will track the proportion of residents who are randomized and complete each arm, with completion consisting of reviewing all module content and the animated simulations in the case of self-directed VEGA and full attendance of the virtual workshop in the case of facilitator-led VEGA. Our goal is that the proportion of residents who are randomized and complete the assigned intervention will be 75% or greater for each arm. The acceptability of the facilitator-led and self-directed educational approaches as well as their value and impact will be determined via the coding of qualitative interview data from a sub-sample of participants.

The RC will track the feasibility of collecting trial outcome data (survey assessments) at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3. Our goal is that the proportion of missing data for each time point will be less than 20%. Qualitative description will be used to expand and extend what we learn about acceptability and feasibility of implementing the associated research activities, we anticipate participants will not identify any fatal flaws related to the conduct of an RCT.

Child Maltreatment Vignette scale (Pelletier et al., 2014; Pelletier & Knox, 2017) is a psychometrically validated measure of knowledge and skill accuracy related to recognizing and responding to child maltreatment. Respondents will be prompted to review 14 distinct analog vignettes that depict a range of signs and symptoms of possible CM exposure and asked if they suspect child maltreatment and if they would report to Child Welfare Services. Changes to the question wording and small changes to the wording of the scenarios were made to align the measure with the Canadian context. A mean "knowledge and skill accuracy" score will be produced for analysis, with higher scores indicative of greater knowledge and skill accuracy related to CM. In a future RCT, this would be one of the primary outcomes of interest since this is a robust measure of knowledge and skills related to CM.

Sociodemographic characteristics will be collected for all participants who are screened for the study, whether they are ineligible or eligible. These will include their age, their program (psychiatry or pediatrics), their sex at birth and their self-identified gender.