While physician care is undeniably important in the management of inflammatory arthritis, educating patients with the knowledge and skills to self-manage their disease can be helpful with decision-making processes and reducing healthcare burden. For example, Lorig et al (2001) demonstrated that individuals who were better able to self-manage their illness experienced a significant improvement in health behaviours, self-efficacy, and health status, and had fewer visits to emergency departments. By equipping patients with strategies to cope and enhance personal health, they take on a more active role in the management of their disease and are able to take on health promoting activities with little supervision from healthcare professionals (Keysor et al., 2003). In fact, patient education in self-management has been identified as an arthritis best-practice and a key clinical practice guideline and (Combe et al., 2007; Holbrook, 2000; Jordan et al., 2003).