Date of Graduation

Spring 5-15-2025

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Department/Program

Nursing

Program

Family Nurse Practitioner

First Advisor

Dr. Jo Loomis

Second Advisor

Dr. Victoria Chaudhary

Abstract

Background

Community Health Workers (CHW) are lay workers who are beneficial in reducing health disparities, in their communities. They provide culturally sensitive home visits and help coordinate resources for their patients. These visits have been shown to benefit the psychological, behavioral, and social health of their patients.

Local Problem

Despite the benefits of CHW involvement, they lack standardized training that could improve their services.

Methods

A partnership was entered by the University of San Francisco (USF) and an international philanthropic organization, focused on helping children. The partnership developed a certification program for CHWs in the Tulare County with USF Nurse Practitioner (NP) students providing the educational component.

Interventions

This intervention, part of a broader curriculum, focused on postpartum women and infant health for the CHW certification program. USF NP students created a curriculum which included: three PowerPoint presentations, canvas modules, and pre and posttests to gauge learning.

Results

CHWs showed improvements in knowledge after each of the three teaching sessions. Post tests showed improvements from pretests in standard deviation, and average, high, and low scores. Average testing time varied for post scores between the teaching sessions.

Conclusions

CHWs verbalized feeling of increased confidence in their skills. Their pre and post surveys revealed retained knowledge to use with their patients. Future changes to the surveys could include quantifying confidence levels before and after the classes. Overtime, as the CHWs retain new knowledge they can form stronger connections with their patients and give more sound medical and practical advice.

Key words: Community Health Workers, Nurse Practitioner students, postpartum care, education

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