In order to elevate the status and value of the CHW workforce as key personnel engaged in a care coordination team, it is vital to establish their credibility and accountability through a careful consideration of their education and skills-based training.Patients, in their reliance on health care providers, must be assured that CHWs will demonstrate standards of practice that result in the highest quality of care possible.

In April 2014, the Nebraska Community Health Worker (CHW) Steering Committee requested an inventory of curricula components offered through the four existing venues identified in the state where CHWs had received “training”.The Steering Committee was interested in learning if curricula were in alignment with the adopted core competencies suggested by the Committee, what was in common, what was different, and any recommendations that might be offered based on the survey. For more details (including the questions and the analysis) please see the attachment.

Core competencies and skills have been established over time for CHWs with the inception of Community Health Representative training through Indian Health Service.Over time, core competencies have been identified nationally among states such as New York, Minnesota, California and others.The American Public Health Association has actively engaged in promotion of CHW workforce training in policy statements and technical assistance.

To continue to unify promotion of the CHW workforce statewide, it will be important to continue to understand the challenges among stakeholders in terms of the definition and roles of CHWs, key interests, and what it will take to engage people and organizations at multiple levels and sectors in order to support successful policy and practice.It will be important to learn from CHW training graduates what is most useful about their programs in community practice and to learn from CHWs and employers what should be covered in terms of education.From an academic perspective, it will be important to share with stakeholders concerns and opportunities in addressing education of this evolving workforce.

Learning what Nebraska CHW training programs provided was considered fundamental to the work of the Nebraska CHW Coalition Steering Committee.Identifying alignment of training with the core competencies recommended and adopted by the Steering Committee was seen as an important first step in establishing the structural elements of CHW workforce advancement as a profession in the state.

Based on the survey results, the Standards Workgroup shared results with Steering Committee and Workgroup members (Education, Sustainability, Association) for further review.It is anticipated that as training curricula are re-established or developed, that the survey results can be reviewed and included in curricula design or enhancement.