Problem: Approximately 80 million people in the United States are affected by chronic low back pain (CLBP) at some time in their lives. It disables more people than cancer or heart disease and costs the American people more than 100 billion dollars a year in medical costs. Pain can be debilitating, causing not only physical strain but also serious financial, social and quality of life issues for many pain sufferers. Practitioner fo not always understand the causes of CLBP, and this lack of understanding has led to inadequate assessment and treatment for these patients. Chronic low back pain has continued to be a challenge for healthcare professionals. The knowledge and attitudes of these healthcare practitioners plays an important role in the treatment and referral of patients with CLBP. Purpose and Scope: The purpose of this Capstone Project was to describe healthcare provider attitude and knowledge regarding patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) before and after an online CLBP teaching intervention. The rationale for the project was to increase healthcare practitioner’s awareness of evidence-based guidelines regarding the management of CLBP, with subsequent implementation of adequate treatment plans. Goal: The goal of the project was to successfully implement an evidence-based teaching intervention pertaining to assessment and treatment strategies for healthcare practitioners treating CLBP. Objectives: The first obejctive was to describe the demographic characteristics of healthcare practitioners who participated in an online survey concerning their knowledge and attitude regarding CLBP. The second objective was to describe the pre-intervention self-awareness of the selected healthcare practitioners relating to their knowledge and attitude regarding the assessment and treatment of CLBP. The third objective was to describe the post-intervention self-awareness of the selected healthcare practitioners knowledge and attitude regarding the assessment and treatment of CLBP. Fourth was to measure changes in self-awareness of knowledge and attitude of the assessment and treatment of CLBP before and after an evidence-based teaching intervention. Plan: Phase One: Administer a survey using a tool developed from a summary of the literacy evidence regarding CLBP. Phase Two: Design a teaching intervention using an Evidence Based Medicine approach. Phase Three: Implement a teaching intervention based on evidence-based treatment guidelines for CLBP for a projected sample. Phase Four: Evaluate the level of attitude and knowledge self-awareness before and after an evidence-based teaching intervention using an alpha coefficient procedure. Outcomes and Results: The analysis of this project suggests that the teaching intervention had the desired positive effects. The post-test knowledge and attitude measures were significantly correlated. Participants also reported significantly more comfort and more positive attitudes following the intervention.
