69 BUILDING TOWARDS COMPREHENSIVE GERIATRIC ASSESSMENT (C.G.A.) – A STEP-BY-STEP CPD PROGRAM

Abstract

Abstract Background The National Clinical Programme for the Older Person (2016) advises Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) as the gold standard for the management of frailty in older people. Over the past three years the Medicine for the Elderly (MedEl) OT service have introduced a number of key quality initiatives as part of a wider Continuous Professional Development (CPD) program to support adherence to the CGA guidelines. These initiatives have focused on implementing staff development and training, and clinical processes to provide OTs with the necessary knowledge, skills and structures to carry out CGA Methods An audit of OT initial assessments was completed in which data pertinent to CGA was collected, this identified poor compliance and led to the re-design of the OT MedEl Staff Grade competencies in line with CGA guidelines. The team In-services and staff grade peer support were also re-designed into cycles based on the key performance domains within CGA such as upper limb and cognition. It was hoped that a more coordinated approach to CPD, beginning with the structures in place would result in improved knowledge and skills to carry out CGA. Results An audit of OT initial assessments was completed in which data pertinent to CGA was collected pre and post in-service cycles. This demonstrated an average increase of 21% across the 9 performance domains. Staff also self-rated their knowledge, skills and confidence in relation to the key performance domains within CGA which demonstrated an average improvement of 12.5%. Conclusion As part of an ongoing iterative testing cycle, a further re-audit of the OT Initial Assessment tool will be completed in the next quarter to ascertain the long-term impact of a coordinated, cohesive CPD program to support sustained implementation of CGA within our service.