TELEMONITORING MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROFESSIONAL GROUPS IMPROVES THEIR SELF-EFFICACY IN THE CARE OF MINERS

Abstract

SESSION TITLE: Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Posters PRESENTED ON: October 18-21, 2020 PURPOSE: Given the re-emergence of pneumoconiosis in the U.S., there is a tremendous need to train rural professionals in its multidisciplinary management. The Miners’ Wellness TeleECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) Program in New Mexico, U.S., provides longitudinal multidisciplinary telementoring to professionals taking care of miners. The impact of this approach on the self-efficacy of participants has not been previously evaluated. METHODS: This is a 12-month longitudinal study involving clinical and non-clinical professionals caring for miners. The study outcome was the change in self-efficacy scores, using a customized instrument of 14 measures, grouped into three domains: clinical, medicolegal and soft skills. The primary outcome utilized a retrospective pre–post design that collects “pretest” data at the post-intervention timeframe. RESULTS: Subjects reported significant improvements in nine of 14 items (p<0.05) and a significant decline in one of 14 items (with respect to their ability to interpret pulmonary function test results, p<0.001) since their start dates in the program. Subjects also reported significant improvement with respect to their scores for all three domains and for the 14-item total score (p≤0.01). Existing participants and clinical professional groups demonstrated greater improvement in selected items than fresh participants and non-clinical professional groups respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first in a stepwise approach to determine the benefit of participating in a multidisciplinary telementoring intervention by improving participant self-efficacy in caring for miners with complex mining-related diseases. Our study finding represents a potential solution to a growing access to care gap for miners with pneumoconiosis. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Although future studies will determine whether improved participant self-efficacy correlates with improvement in patient outcomes, our study finding represents a potential solution to a growing access to care gap for miners with pneumoconiosis. This provides the rationale for utilizing systems that are already in place for rapid scaling of the Miners’ Wellness TeleECHO Program at other institutions nationally and globally. DISCLOSURES: no disclosure on file for Nour Assad; No relevant relationships by Ramni Khattar, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Kyla LeSuer, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Orrin Myers, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Brian Soller, source=Admin input No relevant relationships by Akshay Sood, source=Web Response