Online Program

291377
Training health coaches to deliver a worksite translation of the diabetes prevention program


Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 1:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Heather M. Padilla, MS, RDN, LD, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Heather Zuercher, MPH, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Mark Wilson, HSD, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
David M. DeJoy, PhD, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, Workplace Health Group, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
This presentation describes the training of health coaches to deliver FUEL Your Life, a worksite translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program. FUEL Your Life is being conducted with three city/county governments in Georgia. Health coaching seeks to facilitate participants' achievement of health-related goals as part of the behavioral intervention. Currently the term health coach is unregulated and there are no standards for being a health coach, therefore, the training of health coaches varies greatly. In this study, we sought to develop a training protocol for the health coaches delivering FUEL Your Life. This training began with a task analysis of the health coach roles and responsibilities. From this task analysis, 27 competencies were outlined by the research team and grouped in 7 domains: (1) foundations of health coaching, (2) establishing the relationship with the participant, (3) communication, (4) goal setting and planning, (5) conducting group coaching effectively, (6) cultural competencies, and (7) data management. A training protocol was then built around the 7 domains and addressed each competency. Finally, a procedure was developed for assessing each coach on the established competencies at the end of the training and this procedure will be used to continually assess the health coaches during intervention delivery as a part of the process evaluation. The development of the training protocol and the assessment process will be described and implications for practitioners will be discussed.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the need for health coach training. Describe a process for training health coaches to deliver a worksite weight management intervention. Describe a procedure for evaluating health coach competencies.

Keyword(s): Worksite, Public Health Education and Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the project director for the research study described in this abstract and have been involved in every aspect of the project from intervention development to implementation and data collection. I have worked in worksite health promotion research for the past 6 years on 3 federally funded research projects aimed at obesity prevention and treatment in employee populations.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.