Files and links (1)
CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Training community homecare workers to deliver falls prevention programmes: A mixed methods evaluation
Health education journal
2025
Abstract
Objective:
To design and evaluate an education and training programme for community homecare workers to deliver falls prevention programmes to older homecare clients.
Design:
Mixed methods design.
Setting:
Community homecare organisation.
Method:
A series of role-based training workshops using a Train the Trainer model were designed using a blended learning approach and conducted with allied health professional, community therapy assistant and support worker staff groups. Training was systematically evaluated using the New World Kirkpatrick model Levels 1 to 3 which measured staff reactions to training, training impact on staff learning, and learning translation into workplace practice. Staff surveys, performance-based assessment in the workplace, email/meeting records and field notes were utilised. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests; qualitative data were subjected to deductive content analysis.
Results:
Five allied health professionals, 14 therapy assistants and five support workers rated the training workshops as engaging and relevant. Allied health professionals felt confident and motivated to train therapy assistant and support worker groups. Therapy assistants and support workers made significant self-rated falls knowledge gains (p ⩽ 0.01), and more than half achieved competency in performing seven of the nine critical behaviours identified for delivering the 12-week falls prevention programmes in the workplace, such as coaching, correct exercise delivery and educating clients on safety at Week 6. The introduction of workplace support visits was a key driver for facilitating competency and ongoing learning. Areas identified for improvement included consolidating skills to motivate client participation, strengthening the ability to link clients’ programmes to clients’ goals and fostering a more proactive culture of problem-solving and feedback.
Conclusion:
Evaluation showed education and training for community homecare workers to deliver falls prevention programmes to homecare clients was relevant, acceptable and improved self-rated knowledge. Learning was translated to the workplace and skills for improvement were identified for future training workshops.
Details
- Title
- Training community homecare workers to deliver falls prevention programmes: A mixed methods evaluation
- Authors/Creators
- Jacqueline Francis-Coad - The University of Western AustraliaJo-Aine Hang - Univ Western Australia, Sch Allied Hlth, Crawley, WA, AustraliaVanessa Jessup - The University of Western AustraliaLeon Flicker - The University of Western AustraliaChristopher Etherton-Beer - The University of Western AustraliaElissa Burton - Curtin UniversityBernie Wong - Juniper, Juniper Cent, Balcatta, WA, AustraliaSharmila Vaz - Murdoch University, Ngangk Yira Institute for ChangeDan Xu - Curtin UniversityAnne-Marie Hill - The University of Western Australia
- Publication Details
- Health education journal
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- Hospitals Contribution Fund (HCF) Translational Research Grant GNT1174739 / NHMRC Investigator Grant (EL1) award; National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia HCF Research Trust GNT1174179 / Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (EL2) award; National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia
- Identifiers
- 991005821342907891
- Copyright
- © The Author(s) 2025
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Ngangk Yira Institute for Change
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
Metrics
4 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.294 Operations Research & Management Science
- 6.294.2466 Fuzzy Cognitive Maps
- Web Of Science research areas
- Education & Educational Research
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general