Evaluation of health promotion training for the Western Australian Aboriginal maternal and child health sector

Abstract

Health promotion training provides participants with the skills and confidence to deliver health promotion strategies in their communities. The training presents an opportunity to build health professionals' capacity to address some determinants of poor health outcomes among pregnant Aboriginal women and their babies. SO WHAT?: Training would be enhanced if accompanied by ongoing support for participants to integrate health promotion into their work practice, organisational development including health promotion training for senior management, establishing stronger referral pathways among partner organisations to support continuity of care and embedding training into MCH workforce curricula.

A Review of the AAOS International Scholars Program after 14 Years: Professional Development and Education of the Recipients

“…On the contrary, there is substantial literature that supports the use of short-course format for medical and surgical primary education as well as continuing medical education (Morino et al, 1995;Keleher et al, 2005;Cheifetz and Phang, 2006;Patel et al, 2008;Scott et al, 2008;Devine et al, 2009;Bansal et al, 2012;Wilkins et al, 2015). There is objective and subjective knowledge retention and maintenance of skills at follow-up dates as long as 17 months (Keleher et al, 2005;Cheifetz and Phang, 2006;Scott et al, 2008;Devine et al, 2009;Bansal et al, 2012;Wilkins et al, 2015). There is evidence that maintenance of surgical skills requires continuing use of those skills garnered (Patel et al, 2008).…”

“…There is evidence that maintenance of surgical skills requires continuing use of those skills garnered (Patel et al, 2008). In several studies, the shortcourse format was responsible for widely disseminating a higher quality of health care to a much larger population (Morino et al, 1995;Keleher et al, 2005;Devine et al, 2009;Wilkins et al, 2015). Our impression from reviewing information provided by our recipients is that a significant number of individuals were at least exposed, formally or informally, to the knowledge and/ or skills presented in these short-term educational experiences, although we cannot make any conclusions as to whether the information changed their practice or stimulated them to seek additional training and/or knowledge which altered their practice.…”

Professional Characteristics of Health Promotion: A Scoping Review of the German and International Literature

“…German as well as English publications display a broad spectrum of thematic aspects. Some publications evaluate professional training programs in HP for different professions [52][53][54][55][56]. These publications demonstrate that persons employed in HP often don't have any professional knowledge about it [55].…”

Twenty years of capacity building and partnership: A case study of a health promotion scholarship program

“…Building and maintaining the health promotion workforce are crucial to the discipline's longevity and the sustainability of effective health interventions with positive outcomes for communities . Despite a stated need for workforce capacity building, barriers exist to practitioners initiating and maintaining a career in health promotion . There are relatively few examples of transition to practice programs for new health promotion graduates or for those moving from other professions to health promotion.…”

“…Transition programs and graduate‐specific positions feature heavily across other areas of health in Australia and globally, acknowledging benefits to both new graduates and organisations, including reducing staff turnover and promoting leadership . Support programs that develop required competencies, usually in the form of rigorous orientation and/or mentoring, have been shown to improve confidence and leadership, increase retention and provide an avenue to support and strengthen the workforce . Moves towards national individual registration of health promotion practitioners or accreditation for university courses have occurred only recently, and historically, inconsistent application and use of core competencies for practice both with job roles and university courses have been reported .…”