Recognition of Rashes: Training For Frontline Staff in an Outpatient Setting

Abstract

The main objective of this quality improvement (QI) project was to evaluate if delivering education in the form of just-in-time training on rashes and their etiologies can increase the accuracy, efficiency, and level of comfort in recognizing and diagnosing rashes by front line staff in an outpatient setting. Recognizing rash patterns of dangerous and contagious illnesses can optimize care for individuals and increase health-worker and public safety. The project was implemented in the Fall of 2018 to an outpatient family medicine clinic, in Tucson, AZ, which serves an underserved population. The hypothesis was that this training would make significant improvement in measures of knowledge and comfort level in assessing and recognizing rashes. This project employed a quasi-experimental design with pretest posttest methodology. The educational module was delivered in a live presentation delivered by the author with screen-projected information. As intended, participants included clinicians, nurses, medical assistants, and other office staff in the educational intervention and survey responses. The educational material from the training was made available to the clinic following this study. Paired t-tests comparing pre- and post-test results showed significant improvement in both knowledge level (p=0.0002) and comfort level (p=0.001) in assessing and recognizing rash patterns. In conclusion, though represented by a small sample at a single site, this QI project was successful, indicating this form and topic of training could be useful for future teaching opportunities.