Effectiveness of multi-professional educational interventions to train Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) – a Systematic Review

INTRODUCTION: As the world population ages, health and social care professionals are increasingly confronted with patients with chronic long-term conditions and multimorbidity, requiring an extensive assessment and integrated care management strategy. The aim of this paper was to systematically collect and assess evidence of interprofessional education and training strategies for Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) to build a competent health workforce. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines and the databases Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane and Embase were searched for studies illustrating effectiveness of educational interventions for teaching and training CGA in an interprofessional context. RESULTS: Based on 21 identified studies, a great variability and heterogeneity in duration, setting and design of the interventions was identified. Promising results were found in the domains analysed, ranging from knowledge and skills; practices and behaviour; patient health outcomes; attitudes and perceptions to collaboration and quality of care. DISCUSSION: Education and training of transversal skills within a continuous learning approach is key to equip the health care workforce for successful CGA performance in an interprofessional environment. CONCLUSION: Further research in this field is recommended to strengthen the evidence-base towards development of a resilient and integrated health care workforce for an ageing population.