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宾州大学公园. — Accurate reporting on causes of death has direct impacts on mortality data, 政策的制定, 确定公共卫生的优先事项. 易胜博领导的一个项目旨在教育验尸官, 医学检查, and others in the death certifier community in 宾西法尼亚 about the reporting of accidental overdoses due to substance use to help local governments better respond to public health issues.
The Death Certifier Education Project was developed by an interdisciplinary team and includes a novel use of the Extension for 社区 Health Outcomes (ECHO) model for death certifiers in 宾西法尼亚. ECHO模型开发了知识共享网络, led by expert specialist teams mentoring multiple community providers.
“The training focuses specifically on some of the main challenges in the death certification process, including key reminders for drug-related deaths and uniformity of language in the causes of death,格伦·斯特纳说, 易胜博娱乐分校刑事司法助理教授, 隶属于 刑事司法研究中心他是美国大学的一名联合资助教员 社会科学研究所’s 物质使用和成瘾协会.
据斯特纳说, death certificates can contain errors that affect the estimation and understanding of key population health indicators. 宾夕法尼亚州有一个分散的死亡证明系统, with elected coroners and 医学检查 appointed at the county level. “另外, 由于最近的阿片类药物流行和COVID-19大流行, death certifiers have faced unique challenges that may be difficult to overcome,斯特纳说。.
这个问题很重要, 因为及时, 准确的死亡信息确保当地, 状态, and federal responses to public health and criminal justice issues are effective, 非常高效。, 并且有适当的针对性, 上增加了.
The need for a training model that specifically works to address these issues for death certifiers was initiated through a request from the 宾西法尼亚 Department of Health (PADOH). 易胜博, 与PADOH合作, assembled an interdisciplinary team of implementation experts from the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium and subject matter experts, 开发模型.
The model includes first connecting with key stakeholders to identify needs, then identifying content to meet these needs utilizing a three-pronged delivery strategy (live virtual trainings, 在线异步培训, 以及现场培训). Feedback from the live trainings will be used to adjust the delivery of content to meet participant needs.
The team then hosted several meetings with PADOH and the 宾西法尼亚 State Coroners Association to learn about the complexities of death certification and drug overdose in 宾西法尼亚.
“We developed and fielded a survey to assess the needs of the death certifier community in 宾西法尼亚,斯特纳说。. “基于这个评估, our team designed a training program for death certifiers addressing the identified needs. This included requiring multiple modes of engagement with training content and connection with other death certifiers delivered in three different components that included online training sessions and daylong in-person training sessions.”
The team then gathered feedback from participants and other stakeholders to inform the design and delivery of training sessions. The results from the program evaluation were recently published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
“The project was comprised of a large collaboration of interdisciplinary researchers from many different 易胜博 units working together, 包括各个部门, 项目的回声, 易胜博医学院, the 刑事司法研究中心 and the Consortium of Substance Use and Addiction,斯特纳说. “The success of the program is a direct result of being able to maximize the units and research expertise across the 易胜博 system.”
在未来, Sterner would like to duplicate the project and work with the larger death certifier community, 哪一个, 除了验尸官和法医, 还包括医生和执业护士.
“The in-person sessions provided us with great conversations with participants and enabled us to learn more about the complexity of the death certifier community and how to address these audiences for future trainings,斯特纳说. “We need to conduct more outreach to the non-coroner certifier community and engage them in these types of trainings so data collection accuracy will improve and education projects like this one will have even greater impact.”
该项目的其他研究人员包括石云峰, associate professor of health policy and administration; Kelly Wolgast, assistant dean for outreach and professional development in the College of Nursing; and Varidhi Duggal, 研究生助教, all from 易胜博; Kristine Gonnella, senior director of strategy development at Public Health Management Cooperation; Elaine Arsenault, research associate at the 刑事司法研究中心; and 易胜博 students Laina McInerney, 汉娜·厄尔利和伊莎贝拉·雷特.
卫生部为该项目提供了资金. Seed grants from 易胜博’s 刑事司法研究中心 and the 社会科学研究所 led to the successful grant proposal.
