Texas Department of State Health Services HIV/STD Program Case Management Training
Texas Department of State Health Services HIV/STD Program Case Management Training
Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) HIV/STD Program Case Management Training
Client: Texas Department of State Health Services
Industry: Health/Medical, Government
Project Life: 2010 to Present
Authoring Tool: Lectora 12
With an expansive mandate, 11,000 employees and a budget of $2.8 billion, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is responsible for the health and well-being of 28 million Texans. DSHS’s Program has the duty to identify, report, prevent, and control HIV, AIDS, and STDs in the State of Texas.
Case Manager Competency Program
DSHS’ HIV/STD Program needed to create a case manager competency program for all new hires. The goal of the program would be to provide new case managers with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for successful HIV case management in Texas. The HIV/STD Program was already delivering instructor-led training to 250 to 300 field staff. The field staff was providing case management services across 60 to 70 agencies throughout Texas. While this approach was successful in reaching a large number of new case managers, it wasn’t possible to make a training session available for each new hire. This meant that case managers were often out in the field without formal training. A full-time instructor-led training program would take nine to ten months of staff time per year to deliver.
DSHS determined that an online training program would provide several benefits. It would enable new case managers to receive sorely needed training before they engaged with clients. It would save money and time for both the State and local contractors. It would help keep case managers in the office and as available to clients as possible.
Our Elearning Solution for DSHS HIV Program
Microassist created online training that provides ongoing, continual education to field staff with varying backgrounds at the point of need. The training program incorporates the rich dialog that found in instructor-led courses. The course allows the case managers to get consistent information and philosophy of care. The training helped caseworkers:
- increase awareness of current statistics regarding HIV;
- explain what HIV testing and reporting looks like in Texas;
- Define and explain basic HIV/AIDS information;
- Show a basic understanding of HIV medication and the goals behind treatment;
- assist clients with accessing medication.
The lessons are interactive and engaging, improving the “stickiness” of the information. The course is designed to meet State of Texas accessibility standards to allow for universal access for those with disabilities.
The online training provided ongoing, continual education to field staff with varying backgrounds in a timely manner. It incorporated some of the rich dialog that’s found in other instructor-led courses. It conveyed consistent information and philosophy of care. Once developed the course, was hosted in DSHS’s in-house learning management system, which provided tracking and scoring for both participants and administration.
The Results of the DSHS Case Management Training Program
The training has been so well received that other state and local agencies and partners outside of the DSHS Case Management group have asked to use it as part of their training. It will be a tier-one core competency for public health officials in the Case Management Institute currently under development.
“Working with Microassist to build this training was one of the easiest relationships I’ve had with outside consultants. Communication was really easy and they worked to be knowledgeable about the topic.”
Ann Dills, MSW, DSHS HIV Systems Consultant.
The DSHS Case Management course is posted to the TRAIN Texas Learning Network, where it is available to HIV Care Services’s case managers as a self-study web-based training program. Since it was posted, over 875 people have taken the course.
Of the over 250 reviews of the course, 88% rated the course as four or five stars (out of five, five being the best). Reviewers called the course “very thorough and informative,” “thorough information [that’s] helpful, especially [for] understanding all the resources accessible to future clients,” and “very extensive and useful information [to be] provided for [a] new [Case Management] team.”
In addition, dozens of case managers took the course two (or even three) times, reinforcing their learning in ways that would have been difficult had the course been delivered as instructor-led training.
The online solution that DSHS sought and Microassist provided created a high-quality, informative resource that allowed new case managers to orient themselves without having to wait for an instructor-led course to be held in their area. Microassist’s online solution helped achieve DSHS’s goals of providing timely training, saving money, and keeping case managers available to clients.
More Information
For more information on Microassist custom training development in general or this elearning example specifically, please contact us at [email protected].