Does a Train-the-Trainer Approach for Enhancing Healthcare Professionals’ Skills in Patient Education during Inpatient Medical Rehabilitation Improve Patient Outcomes ?

This study is aimed at identifying the impact of a team-based train-the-trainer program (TTT-P) to enhance healthcare professional(HCP) skills in patient education during medical rehabilitation. Focusing on patient-reported outcomes, a prospective, sequentialtwo-cohort study was conducted in thefields of psychosomatic and oncological rehabilitation. Two hundredfifteen patients wereevaluated before (Cohort 1) and 196 post implementation of TTT-P (Cohort 2). Patients of both cohorts completed validatedquestionnaires on self-management (heiQ®), general self-efficacy (GSE scale), and quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref) at thebeginning, at the end, and at the 6-month follow-up to analyze short- and intermediate-term effects. Analyses were conductedseparately for the psychosomatic and oncological setting. Results showed that TTT-P had no impact on patient outcomes inboth rehabilitation settings. Patients did report positive outcomes as a result of the whole inpatient rehabilitation programs,though effects at follow-up were mostly small to medium size. Concerning self-management competencies, cancer patientsgained less benefit during rehabilitation than psychosomatic patients. In conclusion, TTT-P did not result in measurableimprovements at the patient level, likely because of the limited nature of the intervention. However, these populations ofrehabilitants took benefit from participating in a multimodal rehabilitation program, of which patient education is one part.