142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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301797
Development of coordinator competencies for the Stanford chronic disease management program in Maryland

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Virginia Brown, DrPH , University of Maryland Extension, University of Maryland, Westminster, MD
Patsy Ezell, PhD , University of Maryland Extension, College Park, MD
Community health workers are engaged in multiple settings to educate and promote healthy lifestyle practices.  One such program is the Stanford Chronic Disease Management Program, an evidence-based practice which is used nationwide.  In Maryland, the program, called Living Well, is administered through a partnership between the State Department of Aging and county-based organizations. Coordinators are hired to manage the program within each county. These coordinators come from various backgrounds; they may hold split positions and also have varied experience teaching the program.  Because of this diversity, the State wanted to better understand which competencies they possess that enables them to be successful.  The University of Maryland Extension and the State Department of Aging partnered to explore and identify these competencies.  As a result a research project focusing on competency development and identification with related health professions was initiated. Using this knowledge, focus groups were held at the annual coordinator training in September 2013 to ascertain from the coordinators themselves what skills and knowledge they felt were important to the position.  Results were reviewed and categorized by the University, verified by the Department of Aging and validated again by the coordinators.  Results indicate six competency domains for Living Well Coordinators: communication, evaluation and assessment, management, education and training, technology and professional behavior and skills.  Discussion and recommendations will center on the specific tasks within each, the blurring and confusion of roles for coordinators and lay health educators, implications for hiring and training practices, and possible strategies for findings verification outside Maryland.

Learning Areas:

Administration, management, leadership
Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice

Learning Objectives:
Describe the methods used to identify workforce competencies Discuss the six competency domains and tasks identified by coordinators as being necessary to the position Explain how this can be used in training and hiring of the workforce and ways findings can be validated nationwide.

Keyword(s): Evidence-Based Practice, Public Health Curricula & Competencies

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: i was part of the 2-member team that investigated these competencies
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.