Inside HRSA - May 2008 - Health Resources and Services Administration
 
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HRSA "Webinar" Course Wins Top Prize From Federal Communicators Group

A Web-based health communication training course developed recently by HRSA has won first place in the “Webinar” category from the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC). A webinar is a training course or seminar made available over the Internet.

The winning course, “Unified Health Communication: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency,” was designed to help HRSA-supported health care providers improve communications with their patients.

“This project puts HRSA in a position of advancing health literacy efforts in an innovative way,” said HRSA Administrator Elizabeth M. Duke. “I am extremely proud to receive this award for a project that supports the missions of HHS and HRSA.”

  

Representation of Health Literacy main menu.
Representation of Health Literacy main menu.

  

The training was first made available to the public last November at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C. (See an earlier Inside HRSA story on the course.) Since then, more than 3,000 users have registered to use it online through a link on HRSA’s Health Literacy Web site.

“We’re obviously very pleased to receive this special award and to see how helpful the training is,” said Linda Johnston-Lloyd of HRSA’s Center for Quality (CQ). Johnston-Lloyd led the HRSA Health Literacy Work Group and Health Literacy Training Team that developed the training.

Other team members were Kim Dickerson (OC), Len Epstein (OMHHD), Richard Jackson (BPHC), Linda Kwon (CQ), Samara Lorenz (OPE), Maria White (OEOCR) and Rob Logan (National Library of Medicine).

Health professionals across the nation who have accessed the course find it useful.

“The training covers issues of culture, health literacy and health promotion in an engaging and informative way,” said Jacquelyn Chinnock Reid of Indiana University Southeast’s Division of Nursing in New Albany, Ind. “I plan to have our nursing students complete it.”

Alissa Mork of the Yakima Valley (Wash.) Farm Workers Clinic said their dental residency director examined the course and decided it would be a “good fit” for their operations. “We plan to have the incoming class of residents complete the curriculum during our orientation week in July,” Mork said. Yakima Valley is a HRSA-supported health center grantee.

NAGC awards recognize government agencies or individuals for significant achievement in communications. “Award winners are judged and rewarded by their peers,” said NAGC Award Administrator Michelle Savoie. The HRSA award was announced April 29 at NAGC’s annual meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.

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