Development and evaluation of a community of practice to improve stem cell donor recruitment in Canada

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Communities of practice (CoPs) represent effective models to achieve quality outcomes in health care. We report the development and evaluation of a CoP to improve stem cell donor recruitment in Canada. Materials and Methods:In September 2017, we invited national stakeholders in stem cell donor recruitment to participate in a Facebook group and regular e-meetings. E-meetings involved speakers and roundtable discussion on topics related to donor recruitment. The Facebook group facilitated sharing of resources. We evaluated stakeholder perspective of the CoP and the impact on recruitment outcomes.Results: As of December 2020, the CoP included 382 members who published 243 posts to the Facebook group about patient/donor stories (40%), resources (27%), updates/questions (21%) and recruitment outcomes (12%). In January 2020, we surveyed 44 CoP participants; the majority felt that the Facebook group (86%) and e-meetings (59%) supported the community, and that the CoP fostered collaboration (82%), improved their donor recruitment knowledge (75%) and practice (77%) and improved their ability to recruit needed donors (64%). The launch of the CoP

Development and evaluation of checklists to support the recruitment of committed hematopoietic stem cell donors

“…The checklists also emphasized recruitment of the most-needed donors: young males and people from a diversity of ancestral backgrounds. This supports that the checklists contributed meaningfully to the observed recruitment outcomes and error reduction, and can be deployed a part of a larger effort (including training, 38 recruitment multimedia, [35][36][37]39,40 and key messaging) to support recruiters to realize best practices and recruit needed donor demographics.…”

“…There are several limitations to this analysis. With respect to the reduction in errors and improved donor recruitment outcomes seen post-implementation of the checklists, other variables may have contributed, including improvements over time to recruiter training unrelated to the checklists; additional experience accrued by each recruitment team; development of stem cell collection diagrams 35 and high-quality multimedia resources to support donor education 6,36,37 ; and the launch of a community of practice in stem cell donor recruitment in Canada, 38 in which all Stem Cell Club donor recruiters are members. Nevertheless, data from quantitative and qualitative analysis of recruiter feedback demonstrated that the checklists were frequently used as training and memory recall tools both before and at drives, including to guide recruiters to engage with needed donor demographics, deliver the information required to secure informed consent, and error-check registration and tissue sample collection.…”

“…The community of practice in stem cell donor recruitment in Canada has set reducing attrition as an objective, including collaboration with Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry to incorporate multimedia resources into e-blasts sent to donors at regular intervals following initial registration. 38 More work is needed to develop and evaluate approaches to limit donor attrition across the donation journey.…”

“…In addition to efforts prior to 6,36,37,40 and at time of recruitment (e.g., using these checklists) to improve knowledge and reduce ambivalence of potential donors toward donation, 18 efforts are needed downstream from recruitment to continue to engage and retain donors. The community of practice in stem cell donor recruitment in Canada has set reducing attrition as an objective, including collaboration with Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry to incorporate multimedia resources into e‐blasts sent to donors at regular intervals following initial registration 38 . More work is needed to develop and evaluate approaches to limit donor attrition across the donation journey.…”

Why We Swab: A library of stories in stem cell donation

“…The committee shared published stories with stakeholders in donor recruitment via the Facebook group of the community of practice in stem cell donation in Canada (facebook.ca/groups/stemcellclub). 33 Recruiters shared stories as part of donor recruitment campaigns spearheaded by Stem Cell Club. Press releases including stories from Why We Swab were developed and submitted to media outlets ahead of these campaigns.…”