Impact of intensive training on health professionals’ self-efficacy in establishing, running and maintaining a cardiac rehabilitation program

We developed an intensive five-day training program for health professionals working in cardiac rehabilitation (CR). The training covers topics related to establishing, running, maintaining and evaluating a CR program. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the training on health professionals’ self-efficacy regarding the effective delivery of CR. From 2014 to 2018, 167 health professionals participated in one of five training programs. Participants completed a 28-item pre- and post-training self-efficacy scale. For a sub-group, self-efficacy was re-assessed 4 months later. Factor analysis was used to identify self-efficacy domains. Paired sample t-tests compared pre- and post-training self-efficacy scores; repeated measures analysis of variance investigated change over the three time points. Variations in self-efficacy across profession, role in CR, and years of CR practice were investigated. Factor analysis identified three domains: Operational aspects of CR; Medical aspects of heart disease; and Psychosocial aspects of CR. Health professionals’ self-efficacy increased significantly after training participation, across the three domains and for the total score. Effects were sustained in the 4-month follow-up. Few variations in self-efficacy trajectories by participant characteristics were identified. The study demonstrates that our health professional CR training significantly improves health professionals’ confidence in a range of areas related to establishing, running, maintaining and evaluating a CR program, with immediate improvements sustained four months later. The pattern of findings was largely consistent regardless of participants’ role and experience in CR. Findings highlight the benefits of this relatively brief intensive program on enhancing the capacity of the CR workforce.