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Palliative Care Curriculum and Training Plan for community health workers
  1. Olivia Monton1,2,
  2. Aida Abou-Zamzam1,
  3. Shannon Fuller3,
  4. Tracy Barnes-Malone1,
  5. Amn Siddiqi1,
  6. Alison Woods1,
  7. Jae Patton4,
  8. Chidinma A Ibe3,5 and
  9. Fabian M Johnston1
  1. 1Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  2. 2Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  3. 3Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  4. 4Department of Palliative Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  5. 5Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Fabian M Johnston, Department of Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA; fjohnst4{at}jhmi.edu

Abstract

African American patients are less likely than White patients to access palliative care. Community health workers (CHWs) are non-clinical public health workers who may address this gap. We developed a Palliative Care Curriculum and Training Plan for CHWs as part of an ongoing randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of a CHW palliative care intervention for African American patients with advanced cancer. This study aimed to determine whether the Palliative Care Curriculum and Training Plan leads to gains in knowledge, perceived competence on CHW study-based tasks, and satisfaction among CHWs. The curriculum was delivered over 3 months using synchronous, asynchronous and experiential training components. CHWs were assessed through survey questionnaires and semistructured interviews. We trained a total of three CHWs, one from each of our enrolment sites: Johns Hopkins Hospital, TidalHealth Peninsula Regional and University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital. CHWs demonstrated an increase in knowledge, with a mean pre-training test score of 85% (SD 10.49) and post-training test score of 96% (SD 4.17). The training led to increases in perceived competence among CHWs. Areas for future training were identified. This curriculum serves as a template for CHW training focused on palliative care, oncology and health disparities.

  • advance care planning
  • cancer
  • communication
  • education and training

https://doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2023-004527

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors CRediT authorship contribution statement—OM: conceptualisation, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing - original draft. AA-Z: conceptualisation, methodology, writing - review and editing. SF: formal analysis, writing - review and editing. TB-M: conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, writing - review and editing. AS: conceptualisation, writing - review and editing. AW: conceptualisation, writing - review and editing. JP: conceptualisation, methodology. CAI: conceptualisation, methodology, writing - review and editing. FMJ: conceptualisation, methodology, writing - review and editing, supervision.

    • Funding This study is part of an ongoing randomised controlled trial entitled 'Dissemination and Implementation of a Community Health Worker Intervention for Disparities in Palliative Care: DeCIDE PC', which is funded by the National Cancer Institute (Grant number: 1R01CA252101-01A1).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.