Educational Needs Among Health Professionals in Rheumatology: Low Awareness of EULAR Offerings and Unfamiliarity with Course Content as a Major Barrier – a EULAR Funded European Survey

Lisa Sperl¹, Tanja Stamm², Margaret Renn Andrews¹, Mathilda Bjork³, Carina Boström⁴, Jeannette Cappon⁴, Jenny de la Torre⁵, Annette de Thurah⁶, Andrea Domján⁷, Razvan Dragoi⁸, Fernando Estévez-López⁹, Ricardo Ferreira¹⁰, George E. Fragoulis¹¹, Jolanta Grygielska¹², Katti Kõrve¹³, Marja Leena Kukkurainen¹⁴, Christel Madelaine-Bonjour¹⁵, Andréa Marques¹⁶, Jorit Meesters¹⁷, Rikke Moe¹⁸, Ellen Moholt¹⁹, Erika Mosor², Claudia Naimer-Stach²⁰, Mwidimi Ndosi²¹, Polina Pchelnikova²², Jette Primdahl²³, Polina Putrik²⁴, Anne-Kathrin Rausch-Osthoff²⁵, Hana Smucrova²⁶, Marco Testa²⁷, Leti van Bodegom²⁸, Wilfred Peter²⁹, Heidi A. Zangi³⁰, Olena Zimba³¹, Thea Vliet Vlieland³² and Valentin Ritschl¹, ¹Medical University of Vienna, CeMSIIS - Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Intelligent Systems, Section for Outcomes Research, Vienna, Austria, ²Medical University of Vienna, CeMSIIS - Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Intelligent Systems, Section for Outcomes Research, Wien, Austria, ³Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, and Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, ⁴Department of Neurobiology, care sciences and society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, ⁵Department of Alicante General and University Hospital, Alicante, Spain, ⁶Department of Rheumatology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, ⁷Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary, ⁸Department of Balneology, Rehabilitation and Rheumatology, Research Center for the Assessment of Human Motion, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania, ⁹Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands, ¹⁰Rheumatology department – Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing (UICISA: E), Nursing School of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, ¹¹Joint Rheumatology Programme, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece, ¹²Department of Polish Rheuma Federation "REF" - member of EULAR PARE, Warsaw, Poland, ¹³Center of Rheumatology, East Tallinn Central Hospital, Tallinn, Estonia, ¹⁴Department of the Finnish Society of Rheumatology Nurses, Helsinki, Finland, ¹⁵Department of Department of Rheumatology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland, ¹⁶RN at Rheumatology Department, Centro Hospitaler e Universitário de Coimbra Professor at Nursing School of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, ¹⁷Department of Orthopaedics, Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ¹⁸National Advisory Unit on Rehabilitation in Rheumatology (NKRR) Division of Rheumatology and Research Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway, ¹⁹Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway, ²⁰BG/BRG Wolkersdorf, Wolkersdorf, Austria, ²¹School of Health and Social Welbeing, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom, ²²Standing Committee of People with Arthritis/Rheumatism in Europe (PARE), EULAR, Zürich, Switzerland, ²³Department of Regional Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark and Danish Hospital for Rheumatic diseases, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg, Denmark, ²⁴Department of Rheumatology, Internal Medicine, MUMC, CAHPRI, Maastricht, Netherlands, ²⁵Department of Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Institute for Physiotherapy, Winterthur, Switzerland, ²⁶Center of Medical Rehabilitation, Institute of Rheumatology, Praha, Czech Republic, ²⁷Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, Genoa, Italy, ²⁸Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Medical Decision Making, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ²⁹Amsterdam Rehabilitation Research Center, Department of Orthopaedics, Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy, Leiden University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ³⁰Department of Rheumatology and Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital and Faculty of Health, VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway, ³¹Department of Internal Medicine N2, Danylo Halytsky Lviv Neurobiology National Medical University, Lviv, Ukraine, ³²Department of Orthopaedics, Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

Meeting: ACR Convergence 2022

Keywords: Education, Health Care, Nursing, Occupational therapy, physical therapy

Session Information

Date: Sunday, November 13, 2022

Title: Health Services Research Poster II

Session Type: Poster Session B

Session Time: 9:00AM-10:30AM

Background/Purpose: Health professionals in rheumatology (HPRs) should participate in post-graduate or continuous education to update and advance their knowledge and skills. This can improve patient outcomes and increase quality of care.¹EULAR aims to become a leading provider of postgraduate education for HPRs. The aims of this study were to evaluate the current motivations for participating in postgraduate education of HPRs, identify barriers and facilitators for participation in postgraduate education, and evaluate participation in the current educational offerings of EULAR for HPRs across Europe.

Methods: An online survey was developed and distributed in collaboration with the EULAR Standing Committee of Education and Training (ESCET) and the Paediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS). The questionnaire was translated by national HPR representatives in 24 languages to cover the 25 national member organisations. Barriers were assessed using 5-point Likert scales, higher scores representing higher barriers. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. In addition, we ran the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) on the answers to the open questions. LDA is an unsupervised probabilistic topic modelling technique that extracts the meanings of a pre-defined number of topics. Design of the survey and reporting of results were done according to the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES).

Results: The online questionnaire was accessed 3,589 times but only 667 complete responses were recorded. HPRs from 34 European countries responded to the survey; 80% of whom were women. The highest-ranked educational need was prevention, including lifestyle interventions and professional development. Although EULAR was well known among HPRs, only 32.1% of HPRs in adult care and 18.6% of HPRs in paediatric care have ever heard of the EULAR School of Rheumatology (Table A). The main barriers to participation in EULAR’s educational offerings were identified by HPRs in adult care and in paediatric care (respectively) as: the unfamiliarity with the course content (3.48 [±1.50]; 3.92 [±1.46]), the associated costs (3.44 [±1.35]; 3.69 [±1.28]) and English language (2.59 [±1.50]; 2.80 [±1.34]).

Conclusion: EULAR is well-known by HPRs in Europe, however, awareness of educational offerings is low and barriers to participation are numerous. To become the leading provider of postgraduate training by 2023, EULAR could use a “franchise” model that can be tailored to local conditions. This could be achieved by strengthening national organizations by actively involving them in the development of training programs and disseminating these programs and offerings through their networks.

Figure 1: Worldmap of the respondents in this survey. The graph below shows the distribution of the HPRs’ responses according to geographical distribution

Table A: Feedback on EULAR. Data are presented separately for HPRs in adult and paediatric care; except for the filter questions, no mandatory questions were included in the survey. To clarify the number of responses per question, the number of valid answers for each question was reported.

Disclosures: L. Sperl, None; T. Stamm, AbbVie/Abbott, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, Takeda, Novartis; M. Andrews, None; M. Bjork, None; C. Boström, None; J. Cappon, None; J. de la Torre, None; A. de Thurah, None; A. Domján, None; R. Dragoi, Pfizer, Elly Lilly, Sandoz, Abbvie, Secom, EwoPharma; F. Estévez-López, None; R. Ferreira, None; G. Fragoulis, None; J. Grygielska, None; K. Kõrve, None; M. Kukkurainen, None; C. Madelaine-Bonjour, None; A. Marques, None; J. Meesters, None; R. Moe, None; E. Moholt, None; E. Mosor, None; C. Naimer-Stach, None; M. Ndosi, None; P. Pchelnikova, None; J. Primdahl, None; P. Putrik, None; A. Rausch-Osthoff, None; H. Smucrova, None; M. Testa, None; L. van Bodegom, None; W. Peter, None; H. Zangi, None; O. Zimba, None; T. Vliet Vlieland, None; V. Ritschl, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Sperl L, Stamm T, Andrews M, Bjork M, Boström C, Cappon J, de la Torre J, de Thurah A, Domján A, Dragoi R, Estévez-López F, Ferreira R, Fragoulis G, Grygielska J, Kõrve K, Kukkurainen M, Madelaine-Bonjour C, Marques A, Meesters J, Moe R, Moholt E, Mosor E, Naimer-Stach C, Ndosi M, Pchelnikova P, Primdahl J, Putrik P, Rausch-Osthoff A, Smucrova H, Testa M, van Bodegom L, Peter W, Zangi H, Zimba O, Vliet Vlieland T, Ritschl V. Educational Needs Among Health Professionals in Rheumatology: Low Awareness of EULAR Offerings and Unfamiliarity with Course Content as a Major Barrier – a EULAR Funded European Survey [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022; 74 (suppl 9). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/educational-needs-among-health-professionals-in-rheumatology-low-awareness-of-eular-offerings-and-unfamiliarity-with-course-content-as-a-major-barrier-a-eular-funded-european-survey/. Accessed .

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