Moving to electronic disease surveillance: Lessons learned from a trainer's perspective in designing and delivering a comprehensive statewide training program for local health departments

In 2008, the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness in the NC Institute for Public Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health partnered with the North Carolina Division of Public Health to assist with rollout of a new centralized Web-based system for disease reporting in local health departments across North Carolina. The rollout of this system involved a multi-step process which included an initial assessment of each local health department, an extensive 2-day face-to-face training, and on-site technical assistance. During a 3-month pilot phase, one Preparedness Center trainer participated in all phases of the system rollout. This included an on-site assessment visit, development of the training curriculum, delivering an average of 2 trainings per month, modifying the curriculum, conducting evaluations, managing administrative logistics, and assisting with post-training on-site technical assistance. For a subsequent 8-month period, an accelerated rollout schedule required additional staff support to deliver an average of 4 trainings per month, modify curriculum, and manage administrative logistics. In addition, trainers were no longer involved with either the pre-training assessment visits or the post-training on-site technical assistance. This presentation describes lessons learned in designing and delivering a comprehensive training program for local health departments (n=85) statewide, with emphasis on challenges faced by curriculum developers and trainers, the pros and cons of involvement with all training components as compared to involvement in a few training components in different phases of the project, and factors that impacted training effectiveness.