Empowering Health Workers to Build Public Trust in Vaccination: Experience from the International Pediatric Association's Online Vaccine Trust Course, 2020-2021

BACKGROUND

The quality of interactions between health workers (HWs) and caregivers is key in vaccine acceptance. To optimize this, HWs need knowledge about best vaccine communication practices in person and on social media. Most pre-service curricula do not include such approaches. COVID-19 necessitated the International Pediatric Association (IPA) to shift from in-person train the trainer workshops to developing an online Vaccine Trust Course to address these gaps.

METHOD

The seven-module, 8-hour Vaccine Trust Course was offered online in seven languages and promoted globally. Course outcomes for participants between September 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021 were assessed using enrollment, participation, and completion data; pre-and post-training surveys of attitudes, knowledge, and practice skills; and follow-up practice surveys 3 months post course completion.

RESULTS

Of the 4,926 participants across 137 countries who registered; 2,381 (48.3 %) started the course, with 1,217 (51.1 %) completing. The majority were 25 - 39 years (57 %), female (57 %), and in pediatrics (70 %); 31 % came from India. 62 % of completers rated course structure/design as excellent, 36 % as good. Over 80 % rated the content as the most valuable aspect. Three months post training, 61 % HWs reported increased empathy towards caregivers, confidence while counseling and increased vaccine acceptance amongst their patients. 21 % identified the course as the only factor in these positive changes.

CONCLUSION

Shifting from face-to-face to online training due to the COVID-19 pandemic helped increase the global reach of HWs course engagement and uptake. Trained HWs reported increased empathy towards caregivers and confidence while counseling and increased patient vaccine acceptance.

Development, evaluation, and implementation of an online pain assessment training program for staff in rural long-term care facilities: a case series approach

Background

Pain among long-term care (LTC) residents, and especially residents with dementia, is often underassessed and this underassessment has been attributed, in part, to gaps in front-line staff education. Furthermore, although evidence-based clinical guidelines for pain assessment in LTC are available, pain assessment protocols are often inconsistently implemented and, when they are implemented, it is usually within urban LTC facilities located in large metropolitan centers. Implementation science methodologies are needed so that changes in pain assessment practices can be integrated in rural facilities. Thus, our purpose was to evaluate an online pain assessment training program and implement a standardized pain assessment protocol in rural LTC environments.

Methods

During the baseline and implementation periods, we obtained facility-wide pain-related quality indicators from seven rural LTC homes. Prior to implementing the protocol, front-line staff completed the online training program. Front-line staff also completed a set of self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews prior to and following completion of the online training program.

Results

Results indicated that knowledge about pain assessment significantly increased following completion of the online training program. Implementation of the standardized protocol resulted in more frequent pain assessments on admission and on a weekly basis, although improvements in the timeliness of follow-up assessments for those identified as having moderate to severe pain were not as consistent. Directed content analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that the online training program and standardized protocol were well-received despite a few barriers to effective implementation.

Conclusions

In conclusion, we demonstrated the feasibility of the remote delivery of an online training program and implementation of a standardized protocol to address the underassessment of pain in rural LTC facilities.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03020-8.

Developing the React to Falls resources to support care home staff in managing falls

Objectives:

Care home residents are falling three times more often than elderly frail people living in their own homes and as such, the management of falls is an important area for care home staff to consider. This paper outlines the development of the ‘React to Falls’ training resources to support care home staff in the management of falls.

Methods:

The ‘React to Falls’ resources were developed in collaboration with falls prevention researchers, expert clinicians working in the field of falls management in care homes and care home staff and residents.

Results:

A freely accessible online and paper based resource was developed to meet the needs of different care home settings. Expert clinicians and care homes emphasised the importance of promoting activity and quality life and ensuring the resources were a learning tool that supported positive risk taking. Expert clinicians highlighted the need to convey the importance of continually reacting to reducing risk in the management of falls.

Conclusions:

This study has developed a set of training resources on falls management to support care home staff to continually react and consider the risks and management of falls. An evaluation of the impact of the resource on care staff behaviour and organisational changes is recommended.

Training Impact on Novice and Experienced Research Coordinators

Competency-based training and professional development is critical to the clinical research enterprise. Understanding research coordinators' perspectives is important for establishing a common core curriculum. The purpose of this study was to describe participants' perspectives regarding the impact of online and classroom training sessions. 27 participants among three institutions, completed a two-day classroom training session. 10 novice and seven experienced research coordinators participated in focus group interviews. Grounded theory revealed similarities in novice and experienced coordinator themes including Identifying Preferences for Instruction and Changing Self Perceptions. Differences, seen in experienced participants, focused on personal change, in the theme of Re-Assessing Skills. Infrastructure and cultural issues were evident in their theme, Promoting Leadership and Advocacy. Novice participants recommended ways to improve training via their theme of Making Programmatic Improvements. Participants reported a clear preference for classroom learning. Training played an influential role in changing participants' self-perceptions by validating their experiences. The findings provided guidance for developing a standardized curriculum. Training must be carefully tailored to the needs of participants while considering audience needs based on work experience, how technology can be used and offering content that is most urgently needed.

A globally networked hybrid approach to public health capacity training for maternal health professionals in low and middle income countries

Background

MundoComm is a current NIH-funded project for sustainable public health capacity building in community engagement and technological advances aimed at improving maternal health issues. Two to four teams are selected annually, each consisting of three healthcare professionals and one technical person from specific low and middle income countries (LMICs) including Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and other LMICs. MundoComm is a course with three parts: in-person workshops, online modules, and mentored community engagement development. Two annual 1-week on-site “short courses” convened in Costa Rica are supplemented with six monthly online training modules using the Moodle® online platform for e-learning, and mentored project development. The year-long course comprises over 20 topics divided into the six modules - each module further segmented into 4 week-long assignments, with readings and assigned tasks covering different aspects of community-engaged interventions. The content is peer reviewed by experts in the respective fields from University of Rochester, UCIMED in Costa Rica, and faculty from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic who maintain regular contact with the trainees to mentor learning and project progress. The purpose of this paper is to report the first year results of the MundoComm project.

Methods

Both quantitative and qualitative feedback (using online data capturing forms) assess baseline and post-training knowledge and skills in public health project strategies.

Results

The course currently has one team each in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras for a total of 12 trainees. The course and modules include best practices in information and communication technologies (ICTs), ethical reviews, community engagement, evidence-based community interventions, and e-Health strategies. To maximize successful and culturally appropriate training approaches, the multi-media didactic presentations, flexible distance learning strategies, and the use of tablets for offline data collection are offered to trainees, and then feedback from trainees and other lessons learned aid in the refinement of subsequent curricular improvements.

Conclusions

Through remark and discussion, the authors report on 1) the feasibility of using a globally networked learning environment (GNLE) plus workshop approach to public health capacity training and 2) the capacity of LMIC teams to complete the MundoComm trainings and produce ICT-based interventions to address a maternal health issue in their respective regions.