Equipping European Primary Care Health Professionals to Deal with Genetics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Equipping European Primary Care Health Professionals to Deal with Genetics

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

With one person in 10 being affected by a condition with a genetic basis during their lifetime, medical professionals in primary care are increasingly expected to deliver genetic services to their patients. Professionals in primary care (general practitioners, family doctors, nurses and midwives) are expected to answer patient queries about genetic conditions, deliver genetic information and triage patients who require genetic or other specialist services. Appropriate skills and knowledge of genetics in relation to healthcare are required to address patient needs, reduce morbidity and mortality and maximise use of health resources. This project was designed to help primary health care workers to identify patients who may have a condition or healthcare concern with a significant genetic component and to manage those patients appropriately.
The focus of the Gen-Equip project was the implementation of adult education via an innovative ‘Train the Trainers’ programme in genomic healthcare, among European primary care practitioners. This was achieved through a partnership between expert patients and specialists in adult education, primary care and genetic health care. The seven participating organisations were five university departments involved in providing education for health professionals, one healthcare institution and one charitable organisation representing over 190 patient support groups. The partners were based in United Kingdom (lead partner), the Czech Republic, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands.
The main aim of the project was to achieve the long-term outcome of improvement in care of patients with genetic conditions or concerns. The objectives, which were all achieved, were to:
1) conduct an educational needs assessment in genetics for primary care practitioners and produce a course curriculum
2) deliver accessible and appropriate online education for primary care practitioners in six languages
3) create a sustainable online educational training course for primary care practitioners in Europe
4) produce a ‘Care Bundle’ comprising a set of practical clinical tools to enable learners to apply the education they had received in their practice.
A needs assessment (via systematic review, stakeholder meeting, stakeholder survey) regarding training required by primary care practitioners to deliver effective genetic healthcare was undertaken as a basis for the curriculum. The educational programme based on the curriculum was supported by a ‘Care Bundle’ that included tools and resources for practical use in clinical settings. To make the educational resources relevant to primary care, we used videos of simulated patients embedded into each online module. Stories told by real patients about their experiences were used to emphasise the relevance of genetics to primary care.
Originally, in our application, we planned to offer education via a series of webinars – live and interactive seminars delivered online and recorded for later use. However, at the stakeholder meeting it became clear to the project team that we could greatly improve the educational resources if we also included a series of longer interactive modules that could be worked through at the learner’s own pace. We therefore extended our plans to produce two sets of resources. These were: 1) A series of nine case-based interactive modules produced in six languages, assessed and accredited by external professional organisations and 2) A series of webinars in six languages on key topics in genetic healthcare. All webinars were recorded and placed on the Gen-Equip website (www.primarycaregenetics.org), which now has a total of 32 webinars, with over one thousand views.
We used the Train the Trainers methodology to target a core group of practitioners and professional leaders who could then be influential in disseminating and using the resources to train others in their own countries. Evaluation shows this strategy has been successful.
Visits to the project webpages and downloads of resources indicate a satisfactory level of usage (6,218 visits from January 2015 to mid-September 2017). Over 33,000 different units of activity (e.g. studying a module or doing a quiz) have been recorded onsite, related to the online interactive modules. We have evaluated the effect of the learning resources and found that 1) there is a high level of user satisfaction 2) the resources have significantly increased knowledge and skills, 3) users report medium to long-term changes in their daily clinical practice as a result of using the resources and 4) trainers are using the modules to provide education to qualified professionals and students.
Sustainability has been assured as the European Society of Human Genetics will continue to host the website and the project team is committed to updating the resources so they can continue to be used for many years. In addition, outputs have been published for use by educators.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 239868 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH & Country: UK

Project Partners

• INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR E CELULAR-IBMC
• GENETIC ALLIANCE UK LTD
• ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
• LANDSPITALI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
• UNIVERZITA KARLOVA
• STICHTING VUMC