Expanding the Workforce in Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Disorders: A Multi-Level Curriculum for Emerging and Practicing Medical and Allied Health Professionals

Background: There is a worldwide workforce shortage to meet the demands in caring for children with developmental, behavioral and mental health disorders. Faculty from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine at the Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) have designed a comprehensive, milestone-based curriculum to effectively prepare trainees and practicing medical and allied health professionals to meet this demand.

Objective: To describe the efficacy of a curriculum for learners of all disciplines and educational levels. The curriculum includes 5 learner levels of 15 minute modules. It is applied by faculty for trainees in multiple educational venues; for independent learning prior to rotations, as blended learning with clinical encounters, and as “just in time” learning as specific questions arise during clinical encounters.

Methods: The curriculum was implemented within the Institute for medical trainees and in an ECHO program for practicing pediatric clinicians. Baseline knowledge was assessed for learners by capturing responses to questions embedded in the module before the educational content was delivered. This pre-exposure measure of knowledge was compared to responses to questions following completion of the module. Results reported were a comparison of percent of correct responses from pre-to-post module exposure. Knowledge gain, confidence and practice change for participants in the ECHO program established for rural and school based primary care clinicians was measured by post-participation survey.

Results: All learners showed a significant positive shift in knowledge acquisition (p < .001) from pre to post participation. ECHO participants reported substantial gains in their confidence in caring for children with developmental and behavioral disorders (p < .001). ECHO participants also reported a greater tendency to care for this vulnerable population within their own practices rather than immediately referring patients to subspecialists following participation.

Conclusion: This curriculum is an effective means of increasing knowledge and multiplying the workforce in developmental and behavioral disorders.