Background/Purpose:

The Popular Opinion Leader (POL) model based on health education theoretical foundations associated with Social Network Theory and Diffusion of Innovation was successfully piloted in several local Hispanic communities. The initial aim of the pilot problem was to develop and teach a core curriculum to address lupus health disparities and a second aim in conjunction, with the American College of Rheumatology and an Office of Minority Health funded grant, 1-CPIMP-151087-01-00 was to disseminate the program as a workshop in May 2016 to engage stakeholders in other targeted communities in the United States that served African American and Native American constituents. The target audience for the curriculum were POLs or Community Health Worker (CHW) equivalents.

Methods:

The multidisciplinary project team who provided training in the POL model included the Project Director who is a rheumatologist, a community Field Director who is a psychologist with cultural competency expertise, a rheumatology trainee, and the POL project manager. The 14 stakeholders who are involved in ongoing lupus health disparities projects participated in the workshop training and they represented a wide range of institutions including community based organizations, academic centers and the ACR. The day long workshop included training of fundamental concepts, curriculum design, application exercises incorporating theory, community practice, and project dissemination adapting culturally-competent practices. Training was done in lecture format and interactive roundtable discussions. Participants completed a qualitative assessment of the workshop at the end of the training sessions.

Results:

Thirteen of fourteen participants responded questions covering workshop purpose and objectives, clarity and appropriateness of the workshop presentation, roundtable interactiveness, participant involvement, use of workshop time, and overall satisfaction. Additionally, open-ended questions were provided on expanding on the workshop strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions/additional comments on this workshop.

All respondents agreed that objectives were clearly stated and that all meeting participants were actively involved and satisfied with the workshop. The majority of respondents reported that the workshop was clear and relevant, that the round table discussions were interactive, and that there was shared decision-making in the workshop. The main shortcoming reported was that there were concerns about effective use of meeting time as some presentations during the workshop were longer than originally programmed.

Conclusion:

The major finding from the workshop is that participants were overall satisfied with their participation, programming of the event, particularly the roundtable discussion activities. Future directions include building on the initial workshop and based on future funding expand the learning experience to lupus-specific stakeholders. In future iterations of the workshop, it will be important to follow-up with program participants to assess program impact.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/engaging-community-stakeholders-through-a-national-lupus-education-workshop/