Perfecting Our Craft: Fall 2015 Training Highlights

Bevin K. Shagoury, Communications & Ed. Director

The NaRCAD team is heading into October with an afterglow from our latest 2-day training session with a truly dynamic group of outreach educators. Each new group of trainees inspires our team with their plans to use their new skills for innovative clinical education programming.

​This fall’s training class will pursue a range of goals in their programs, including:

• promoting provider awareness of diabetes management programs
• increasing Hepatitis C screening and testing for veterans
• increasing primary care referrals for mammography screening
• reducing antibiotic overprescribing, and
• increasing provider cultural competency when serving HIV+ patients who have been formerly incarcerated.

With attendees representing diverse geographic regions such as South Carolina, Norway, Washington State, and beyond, we were rewarded by this group’s eagerness to learn and to share fresh, new ideas on how to make our successful program even stronger.

Our program had a few new highlights to share, too—including an engaging presentation on theories of behavior change, led by Arielle Mather, MPH, NaRCAD’s Education & Training Manager. Setting the stage during Day 1 of our program, this foundational presentation reviewed behavior change models and theories that inform the practice of academic detailing, including Motivational Interviewing and the Theory of Planned Behavior. The presentation was met with enthusiasm and appreciation by trainees and facilitators alike, and many trainees requested more time to talk about these theories during breakout sessions.

Another new element of our program provided dedicated time on Day 2 for a lively group discussion on personalized support from NaRCAD. Trainees, staff, and facilitators brainstormed as a group the ways that NaRCAD could continue to bolster an active learning community through virtual resources, e-news, sharing of best practices, partner modeling, and 1:1 consultation.  As a final new feature of our program, we created time during the personalized support session for more role-play practice. Participants who wanted additional support prior to their final, recorded detailing session had the option to head to a breakout room and receive additional, personalized practice time with an expert facilitator.

As we start planning for our Spring 2016 AD Techniques Training program, we have many new ideas to implement, trainee-to-expert introductions to make, and best practices to feature. As NaRCAD enters our 5th year and prepares for our 3rd annual conference, we hope you’ll join our community of experts leading the way to improving health outcomes with engaging, clinical outreach education.

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