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Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Poster Presentation

P1056 - Student Outreach Programs as Strategies to Address MS Workforce Shortages in the United States: Results Across 3 States (ID 1172)

Speakers
Presentation Number
P1056
Presentation Topic
Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life

Abstract

Background

The demand for neurological care is outpacing the supply of neurologists, and there is a looming shortage of neurologists who specialize in MS (Halpern et al., 2018). Top factors positively affecting a desire to provide care for people living with MS include the ability to improve patient quality of life, the enjoyment of interacting with MS patients, and the perception that MS is a dynamic area with evolving treatment options (Halpern et al., 2014). Other contributing factors include exposure to MS care early in their training, opportunities for clinical fellowships, stimulating medical content, opportunities to work with experienced MS mentors, opportunities to interact with a broad clinical spectrum of patients, exposure to multi-disciplinary care, and opportunities to engage in research (e.g., Teixeira-Poit et al., 2015). To encourage interest in MS careers, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) Workforce Development Committee designed a student outreach program with four components: (1) a basic pathophysiology and clinical presentation of MS; (2) career opportunities and resources discussion; (3) experience presentation of a person living with MS; and (4) intra- and inter-discipline case study discussions. The present study explores the impact of student outreach programs facilitated in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Rhode Island.

Objectives

The student outreach program has five learning objectives including: (1) Describe the basic pathophysiology and clinical presentation of MS; (2) Understand career opportunities and resources; (3) Understand the experience of a person living with MS; (4) Identify MS signs and symptoms; and (5) Discuss the importance of interprofessional collaboration to optimize patient care and quality of life. Our research question is: Does participation in the student outreach program (1) help students understand the five key learning objectives and (2) enhance student interest in pursuing opportunities that can lead to careers in MS patient care?

Methods

We administered surveys to program participants. We conducted univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses of survey data. Analyses were performed in Stata.

Results

Across three states, more than 70% of participants strongly agreed that the program helped them learn about: (1) basic neurological structures involved with MS; (2) clinical phenotypes and typical disease courses; (3) clinical presentations and prevalent symptoms; (4) an MS patient’s lived experience; (5) MS signs and symptoms; (6) key clinical problems of MS addressed by their profession; and (7) at least two other disciplines that manage MS symptoms.

Conclusions

Participation in the student outreach program that provides exposure to MS clinical content, exposure to the MS patient experience/perspective, and networking with MS care experts shows promise in generating student knowledge about and interest in MS patient care.

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