Effectiveness of a Diabetes Training Program for Aboriginal Health Workers and Practitioners

The Diabetes Training Program consists of 3 components: 1) Peer Support Network (PSN) A state-wide virtual PSN for Aboriginal Health Workers and Practitioners. The PSN will commence and convene for 6 months prior to Group A doing the e-learning modules and the OS. The PSN will run online via Teams, once a month, for 1.5 to 2 hours duration, and will be facilitated by a diabetes nurse educator (DNE) who is a research team member. This will include topics aligned with the professional scope of practice and topics covering diabetes-related content. Activities to be included are mentorship support, reflections and readings, stories and lived experiences. A peer support network satisfaction evaluation survey will be collected monthly after each peer support network meeting. Data collected from this survey will help to improve the PSN by responding to positive suggestions and addressing barriers and evaluating the PSN. 2) E-Learning Modules There are 9 self-paced e-Learning modules. Each module takes approximately 1 hour to complete. Ten weeks have been allocated to complete the e-learning modules. All participants will do the e-learning modules. Nine self-paced e-Learning modules on the following topics of diabetes care: - Introduction - About Diabetes - Healthy living - Glucose monitoring - Low and high blood glucose levels - Medicines and insulin - Diabetes-related complications - Support for self-management - Other priority groups Link to the online modules: https://www.ndss.com.au/living-with-diabetes/about-you/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/health-diabetes-learning/ The modes of training will include interactive activities and stories, short videos, PowerPoint presentations, and culturally appropriate resources to support people living with diabetes and their families, with pre and post-knowledge evaluation. Participants will receive 10 professional development points and a certificate on completion of the modules. During the training intervention, a weekly email will be sent out to participants doing the training program to remind and keep participants moving through the modules, and if they need any further help 3) Onsite Support (OS) Practical support for staff to assist with implementing knowledge into practice within their primary care service. The OS sessions will occur during the same 10-week period as the e-Learning modules. The OS will be face-to-face at the primary healthcare service. The number of OS sessions and what is covered during them will be negotiated between the participants and the OS Facilitator. It is suggested that each service hold a minimum of 2 sessions with the OS Facilitator. OS sessions will be held as a group, if there is more than one AHW/P or multidisciplinary health care providers within the health service. The group sessions will be held with AHW/Ps for the first half of the session and then include multidisciplinary healthcare providers for the remainder of the session. This format will be assessed and adapted as needed. The OS will be facilitated by a credentialled diabetes educator (CDE) employed by Diabetes SA, who is a research team member. The study will be implemented in the Aboriginal primary health care services in South Australia. These services primarily provide primary health care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This will be across Metropolitan, Regional and remote South Australian healthcare services. All sites will have a period of 6 months for washout where PSN is only running. All participants will be advised in the training program information sheet and participant consent form that they will be invited to participate in an interview about the barriers and enablers of the training program after they have completed the project. On completing the training program participants will be directly approached by email by research team members up to three times over 3 weeks to be invited to participate in an interview. Interviews about enablers and barriers of participation, sustainability and effectiveness of the training program: Semi-structured interviews will be conducted by an experienced qualitative researcher who is a team member with a medical background with support from a practicing Aboriginal Health Practitioner. The participants will be provided with the interview questions prior to the interview. Interviews will be conducted face-to-face or by Zoom. The interview will last up to 60 minutes. Participants will be asked for permission to record the interview for translation and be given an opportunity to review their transcript to add or remove information. Focus group for system assessment: This assessment will be conducted to understand the service infrastructure, resourcing, supports for best practice chronic disease care. Focus groups with the chronic disease team or staff will be conducted to assess the system characteristics of each service. These will be conducted face-to-face or via Zoom. Focus groups will occur at a time suitable to the service, within the first 12 months of trial commencement. Three research team members will conduct the focus groups. The Assessment of Chronic Care Scale will be used to inform the focus of discussions and system assessment. Participants will be provided with the assessment scale prior to the focus group. The focus groups will not be recorded. Staff who participated will be given the opportunity to review the assessment and provide feedback which will be added. Only one focus group is proposed for each service, taking approximately 1 hour. Participation will be during work hours as agreed with the service manager and participants will not be reimbursed for their participation. There is no certain number for the size of the focus group, it depends on the staff who are available that day.