Today's event is a milestone in a project JSI/Denver has been working on for nearly three years. Since 2000, we have been developing a training program on viral hepatitis for health professionals and working to address gaps in the dissemination of hepatitis prevention information. At the beginning of the three-year project, we conducted a needs assessment to determine the current status of knowledge, skills, and barriers to providing viral hepatitis services in family planning, Title X, rural health and primary care clinics, and community health centers throughout Public Health Service Region VIII, the Western states. Using the results of this assessment, JSI developed a program to test, disseminate, and evaluate training programs for prevention and control of viral hepatitis. The final training curriculum, Viral Hepatitis: An Integrated Approach to the Prevention, Screening and Treatment of HAV, HBV and HCV, is comprised of five training modules, and today is our maiden training.

Yvonne Hamby and Mary McCrimmon at work on the Viral Hepatitis Training Curriculum

Last October, the Boulder Valley Women's Health Clinic (BVWHC) in Boulder, Colorado, volunteered to be the pilot site for our hepatitis training. Since 1973, the BVWHC has been providing quality gynecological care for women in an environment that preserves their dignity and confidentiality. The clinic offers a wide array of services, including family planning and birth control, cervical and breast cancer screening, HIV testing, menopause evaluation, STI screening and treatment, and community health education. Many of the clinic's patients are youth and young adults who are at high risk for HIV and other STD's, including hepatitis B. Also, body-piercing and tattoos are popular with many of the BVWHC's patients. According to the CDC, these practices pose only a slight risk for hepatitis; nevertheless, the clinic staff consider any risk worth discussing with their patients. Given these multiple risks, and that many health care providers do not understand viral hepatitis very well, the staff at BVWHC see our training as a way to improve their service delivery programs.

We had the preliminary training, a general overview of viral hepatitis, in December. Today will be the second step in the process: Part I of the Counseling and Education module.

Mary McCrimmon, Project Associate, is with me today. Mary and I have worked together on this project since it began, helping to compile the needs assessment report, assemble the curriculum design team, manage the development process, and handle logistics for the pilot training.

We have been anxious about this first pilot training—the natural nervousness about launching something brand new, something we've never done before. Also, we've been concerned about having such a big crowd in such a small space, the waiting room of the clinic. But this setting and situation are likely to be close to the reality of most of the clinics where we will be providing this training.

Everyone arrives, albeit a bit late, and we get started late too. It's a good thing that our instructional designer, Harryl Hollingsworth, suggested splitting this module into two parts, to be conducted on two separate dates. Despite our worries, however, the training goes beautifully.

The Viral Hepatitis Training Curriculum has been a true labor of love. It is so rewarding to see our efforts come to fruition when the training is presented to dedicated clinicians who will put the information to use with their patients.

Back to top