Knowledge, skills, and training of community health workers to contribute to interprofessional education: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

A scoping review of 32 publications was conducted with the aim of mapping literature to determine what is known about the knowledge, skills, and training of community health workers that could contribute to interprofessional education. Interprofessional education, as a pedagogical approach, prepares health professions students to serve patients in collaboration with other health professionals to improve patient outcomes. All over the world, the role of community health workers is vital for its support of community service and community health outcomes. However, no evidence could be found on the knowledge, skills, and training of community health workers that contribute to interprofessional education. The knowledge that community health workers need to contribute to interprofessional education, as reported by the literature, relates to case management, communication, health education, recordkeeping and referrals. Skills, such as critical thinking, interprofessional collaboration, and various clinical procedures, were noted. Training approaches reported included the use of technology such as mobile phones and web-based learning. The scoping review improved our understanding of the knowledge, skills, and training of community health workers that could contribute to interprofessional education. Applying a fit-for-purpose approach, and building on existing knowledge, skills, and training, could fast-track the contribution of community health workers to interprofessional education.

KEYWORDS:

• Community health worker
• interprofessional education
• knowledge
• scoping review
• skills
• training

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Vlir’Uos for their contribution towards Community Health Workers engagement.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Annemarie Joubert

Annemarie Joubert is a professor (units) at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research includes a variety of topics related to nursing and interprofessional education. She received a PhD in nursing from the University of the Free State, South Africa.

Marianne Reid

Prof Marianne Reid is the lead researcher in health communication at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences. An interprofessional team of researchers’ studies health dialogue between healthcare providers and patients diagnosed with chronic conditions, and research outputs include developing a health dialogue model for patients diagnosed with diabetes, a peer support model for diabetes patients, and a validated observational checklist of health dialogue elements. She received a PhD in nursing from the University of the Free State, South Africa.