Training clinicians to address caregiver burnout

Background: Caregiver burden is associated with declines in physical, emotional, social, and financial functioning. Interprofessional teams of healthcare providers are optimally and uniquely positioned to implement critical steps toward reducing caregiver burden, and preventing and mitigating burnout: identifying informal caregivers, assessing their needs, and referring them to appropriate resources. Objective: University of Connecticut Medical School Urban Service Track (UST) developed, implemented, and assessed a program to train interprofessional health professions students to understand caregiver burnout, assess informal caregivers for burnout, and refer caregivers to resources known to mitigate burden and burnout. The curriculum’s learning objectives were to train learners to: 1) identify the signs and symptoms of caregiver burden/burnout; 2) assess caregivers’ acute and long-term care needs; 3) refer caregivers to resources to address their specific needs; and 4)develop and offer a comprehensive care plan for caregivers. Methods: UST developed case studies and guidelines and implemented training with 255 health professions students from Spring 2020 through Spring 2024. All trainees provided at least partial evaluation data. Results: Assessment of knowledge change showed significant improvement in all targeted areas. Substantial proportions of participants reported intent to apply what they had learned to assess caregiver burden and burnout; share information for addressing these issues with patients, team members, and colleagues; and refer caregivers to resources that can mitigate burden and burnout. Conclusions: Findings suggest that brief, low-cost, interprofessional training on how to assess and address informal caregiver burnout can be an effective approach to addressing this urgent, prevalent, and costly public health issue.