A Faculty Trainer Model: Increasing Knowledge and Changing Practice to Improve Perinatal HIV Prevention and Care

Abstract

Although routine counseling and HIV testing of pregnant women is recommended, it is not yet universally offered. This paper reports on a project that trained health care providers from 2000 to 2002 using a faculty trainer (or train-the-trainer) model. The goals of the projects were to increase knowledge and change practice, increase HIV counseling and testing in prenatal care, and improve management of HIV in pregnant women. In four jurisdictions of the southeastern United States, 193 health care providers attended faculty trainer workshops using a standardized curriculum. Eighteen providers used the curriculum to train an additional 545 health care providers over 2 years. Participants in both faculty trainer workshops and trainerled seminars reported significant increases in perceived knowledge in all content areas and the intention to change clinical practice. The number of providers who became faculty trainers and then led seminars varied widely among the jurisdictions. Six-month follow-up of faculty trainers, although limited by a 63% response rate, found that over 90% of respondents reported the workshop had a positive impact on their care of women with and at risk for HIV. Our findings indicate the faculty trainer model is an effective way to educate practicing clinicians. Key elements to successful implementation were: ongoing support of faculty trainers by acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) educators, involvement of local HIV experts as trainers and resource persons, and use of a standardized curriculum based on national guidelines.

Evaluation of a Train-the-Trainer Program for Tobacco Cessation

“…[7][8][9][10] The train-the-trainer model has been increasingly used in the education of students in the healthcare professions [11][12][13][14][15][16] and for continuing education of licensed clinicians. [17][18][19][20] The approach appears to be useful in meeting the educational needs of the health care system by increasing the knowledge and skills of providers. Furthermore, staff development programs may improve employee retention.…”

Building Blocks for Peer Success: Lessons Learned from a Train-the-Trainer Program

“…Some components of the TTT structure and delivery that were key to this success included faculty support and technical assistance, financial support and organizational support, similar to other experiences reported in the literature. For example, Burr et al 15 found that ongoing faculty support was a key element of success in their TTT program to reduce perinatal HIV transmission. Other TTT evaluations have found that financial support to obtain items such as training supplies, binders, food, and transportation made an important difference for local trainers.…”

“…[11][12][13][14] In HIV care, TTT strategies have been used primarily for education and prevention. TTT programs have trained health care providers to increase HIV counseling and testing of pregnant women, 15 to train military medical technicians about HIV prevention, 16 to train volunteers in HIV prevention, 17 and to train community health workers to conduct HIV counseling and testing in the Caribbean. 18 Most TTT strategies for HIV care and treatment described in the literature have trained clinicians, primarily doctors and nurses.…”

“…21 For example, in a TTT on public health preparedness, only 20% of those trained conducted a replication training 6 months later 7 and in a TTT on perinatal HIV prevention and care only 37% participants agreed to conduct training and of these only 20% actually conducted a training. 15 Most TTT programs described in the literature describe how the TTT functioned, what it taught and what was learned, but few assessed how trainees returned to their communities to train others. This paper describes a TTT program designed to train health educators and program directors to train HIV-positive peers to support clients in accessing HIV care and treatment.…”

Evaluation of the Breast Cancer Train the Trainer Program for Nurses in Turkey

“…awareness and knowledge of specific health care conditions [7,11,12]. However, formalized TTT programs for nurses about breast health and breast cancer education in Turkey are nonexistent and this TTT National Breast Health program was developed to address the lack of trained health personnel and to provide a very important contribution to breast health and breast cancer patient care quality in Turkey.…”