107 Geriatric education program for emergency physicians CHAPTER 5 Results Demographics Demographics of 21 EPs participating in the quantitative evaluation are shown in table 2. All 13 EPs from the Radboudumc and eight EPs from the CWZ hospital (three dropped out because of sickness, leave and a job transfer, respectively) participated in the quantitative evaluation. At baseline, the participants working in Radboudumc were significantly younger and had significantly less work experience than EPs working in the CWZ. Patients characteristics retrieved from retrospective record analysis are shown in table 3. Patients characteristics did not significantly differ between pre- and post groups on gender, age, referral, triage, length of stay and discharge destination. For the qualitative study, six EPs were interviewed, all working at the ED of the Radboudumc. EPs working in the CWZ were not interviewed due to reasons of availability (clinical duties, vacation, etc.). Effects on geriatric knowledge of emergency physycians Radboudumc EPs performed significantly better on the multiple choice geriatric knowledge test after completion of the program (p<0.01; table 3). Geriatric knowledge did not significantly improve for CWZ EPs (p=0.47). Post training geriatric knowledge of EPs working at the Radboudumc (6.8 ± 1.2) was significantly higher (p<0.001) when compared to EPs working at the CWZ (6.0 ± 0.9). At baseline there was a significant difference in the self-perceived geriatric knowledge between physicians working in Radboudumc and CWZ: 41.8 versus 49.1, respectively (p=0.03). Self-perceived geriatric knowledge among EPs in both hospital settings increased significantly (p≤0.01). Interviewed EPs expressed that the program improved their knowledge of geriatric syndromes and how to discern syndromes that manifest in a fairly similar way (e.g., depression, deliriumand dementia). According to interviewees, the program also provided them practical tools to (better) perform a geriatric assessment of the patient and to recognize specific cognitive syndromes. Several EPs mentioned that the program also improved their understanding of the organization of elderly care in the community in terms of: allocation of responsibilities, referral procedures, terminology, available services and contact persons. This information, provided during the program, gave them more insight in how to organize a smooth patient transition to the community (e.g., home or nursing home).
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