First Nations COVID-19 Vaccination Training

Aim

The goal of the project was to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners and Health Workers knowledge of COVID-19 disease and the need for vaccination.

It also aimed to improve outcomes for Queensland's First Nations people by bringing care on or closer to country.

Outcomes

Increasing Health Professionals' confidence and competence when discussing COVID-19 disease and vaccines. Online module feedback was overwhelmingly positive with more than 90% of respondents indicating the online modules improved their knowledge about COVID-19 vaccinations. Comments included:

• the interactive nature and the language used can be easily communicated to community to gain better understanding and improve acceptance to get vaccines through increased informed consent
• culturally appropriate. Enjoyed the multi-mode delivery
• the best part of the online module was the amount of information that I am now able to help other patients understand about the vaccine
• a total of 20 workshops were held (to date) and attended by 161 participants across. Workshop evaluation feedback was collated upon completion of each day; over 95% of participants indicated that the workshop was very good or good
• the workshop itself was the best parts as it has given me the knowledge and understanding about COVID-19
• group size enabled open conversation flow and sharing
• the interactive parts, practice jabbing, the whole day was very informative.

Background

A need was identified at the beginning of COVID-19 to train First Nations clinicians about the severity of the disease and improve their knowledge so that they can share that with their communities. .

Discussion

Online module learning feedback and workshop evaluation data was collated.

Online module feedback was overwhelmingly positive with more than 90% of respondents indicating the online modules improved their knowledge about COVID-19 vaccinations. Comments included:

• the interactive nature and the language used can be easily communicated to community to gain better understanding and improve acceptance to get vaccines through increased informed consent
• culturally appropriate. Enjoyed the multi-mode delivery
• the best part of the online module was the amount of information that I am now able to help other patients understand about the vaccine.

A total of 20 workshops were held (to date) and attended by 161 participants across. Workshop evaluation feedback was collated upon completion of each day; over 95% of participants indicated that the workshop was very good or good. Comments included:

• the workshop itself was the best parts as it has given me the knowledge and understanding about COVID-19
• group size enabled open conversation flow and sharing
• the interactive parts, practice jabbing, the whole day was very informative

A further follow up evaluation survey is in development to gain greater information from the workshop attendees as to how they have incorporated the training into their role e.g. what role are they playing in their workplace in the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out and if they are administering COVID-19 vaccines.

Lessons learnt

Initially the learning was designed for HPs and IHWs. The training was subsequentially expanded to allow any learner to have access to the online modules. Workshops were also expanded to allow for learners, other than HPs and IHWs to attend; this allowed for consistent key messaging about the COVID-19 vaccines to be delivered in remote communities by all staff.

Review of the online training module statistics indicated that there was a huge diversity of people enrolled in the online learning. Data showed that learners identified speaking 14 different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and 30 other languages.