Unmet educational needs in geriatric care among interdisciplinary professionals working in ambulatory and home care settings: a pan-European survey by the PROGRAMMING COST Action 21122.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) with variable undergraduate geriatric education increasingly manage older adults with geriatric syndromes in ambulatory and home care settings. We aimed to identify specific unmet geriatric educational needs of the different professional groups involved in older people's outpatient care.

METHODS: A cross-sectional structured questionnaire assessing self-perceived knowledge, interest and relevance to practice regarding 33 geriatric domains was disseminated online to interdisciplinary HCPs working in ambulatory and home care settings in the World Health Organization European Region, in the context of the PROGRAMMING COST Action 21122. A global topic score, derived from the formula (relevance + interest-knowledge) served as a surrogate of unmet educational needs, and was standardised using z-scores to enable comparisons across topics and professionals.

RESULTS: In the overall sample of 2380 responders from 41 countries, perceived relevance and interest consistently exceeded self-reported knowledge across all topics. Global topic scores ranking in the top Z-score quintile, indicative of perceived unmet educational needs for most HCP groups, included comprehensive geriatric assessment, resilience and diversity, chronic pain, management of behavioral and psychiatric symptoms in dementia, depression, frailty and cognitive impairment screening. Profession-specific priorities included communication, advance healthcare directives and assessment of capacity to consent for nurses and speech-language therapists, polypharmacy and deprescribing for medical doctors and pharmacists, sarcopenia, dysphagia and nutritional assessment for dieticians and mental health problems for psychologists and social workers.

CONCLUSIONS: Substantial and profession-specific gaps in geriatric education exist in ambulatory and home healthcare settings, which warrant targeted interdisciplinary geriatric courses.