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Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers

Community health workers (CHWs) are health professionals that connect the populations they serve to health services. They play a valuable role in assessing patients’ needs, linking patients with health and human resources, educating patients toward achieving optimal health, and advocating for their...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Somerville, Paige, Lindsay, Ryan, Nguyen, Elaine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10514850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37736907
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11050135
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author Somerville, Paige
Lindsay, Ryan
Nguyen, Elaine
author_facet Somerville, Paige
Lindsay, Ryan
Nguyen, Elaine
author_sort Somerville, Paige
collection PubMed
description Community health workers (CHWs) are health professionals that connect the populations they serve to health services. They play a valuable role in assessing patients’ needs, linking patients with health and human resources, educating patients toward achieving optimal health, and advocating for their patients to have accessible resources to improve their health and wellbeing. Pharmacies are readily accessible and frequently utilized health locations that could employ CHWs. We describe a program to cross-train pharmacy professionals as CHWs. Pharmacy professionals were recruited to sign up for a 13-week CHW core competencies course that was offered in partnership with the state university Continuing Education Workforce Training. From March 2022 to June 2023, 23 pharmacy professionals completed the course. Post-course and program evaluations were completed by 10 participants, and they showed positive responses to their participation in the program. Participants appreciated learning the role of a CHW, and noted increased skills, and awareness of additional tools and resources. Participants reported 47 referrals to chronic disease programs and community resources. The program pilot results show successful partnerships for cross-training pharmacy professionals as CHWs. Cross-trained pharmacy professionals provide benefits to the communities they serve, by being a valuable resource for their patients.
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spelling pubmed-105148502023-09-23 Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers Somerville, Paige Lindsay, Ryan Nguyen, Elaine Pharmacy (Basel) Brief Report Community health workers (CHWs) are health professionals that connect the populations they serve to health services. They play a valuable role in assessing patients’ needs, linking patients with health and human resources, educating patients toward achieving optimal health, and advocating for their patients to have accessible resources to improve their health and wellbeing. Pharmacies are readily accessible and frequently utilized health locations that could employ CHWs. We describe a program to cross-train pharmacy professionals as CHWs. Pharmacy professionals were recruited to sign up for a 13-week CHW core competencies course that was offered in partnership with the state university Continuing Education Workforce Training. From March 2022 to June 2023, 23 pharmacy professionals completed the course. Post-course and program evaluations were completed by 10 participants, and they showed positive responses to their participation in the program. Participants appreciated learning the role of a CHW, and noted increased skills, and awareness of additional tools and resources. Participants reported 47 referrals to chronic disease programs and community resources. The program pilot results show successful partnerships for cross-training pharmacy professionals as CHWs. Cross-trained pharmacy professionals provide benefits to the communities they serve, by being a valuable resource for their patients. MDPI 2023-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10514850/ /pubmed/37736907 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11050135 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Brief Report
Somerville, Paige
Lindsay, Ryan
Nguyen, Elaine
Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers
title Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers
title_full Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers
title_fullStr Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers
title_full_unstemmed Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers
title_short Cross-Training Pharmacy Professionals as Community Health Workers
title_sort cross-training pharmacy professionals as community health workers
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10514850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37736907
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11050135
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