Building Client-Provider Interaction Skills for Quality Service: Interactive Multimedia Training CD-ROM for Latin America

Project Dates: 1998-present

• Overview
• Benefits of Interactive Multimedia

Overview

In 1991, JHU/PCS developed an interpersonal communication and counseling (IPC/C) curriculum for use in Latin America. The Hablemos con Confianza (Speaking with Confidence) curriculum uses adult learning methodologies to transfer IPC/C skills to health service providers and thereby improve the quality of services and achieve customer satisfaction. Since it was first developed, the curriculum has been validated and implemented region-wide.

Hablemos con Confianza is now in its fifth version and contains a set of videos that make the IPC/C training experience richer by modeling behavioral and attitudinal skills that promote informed choice within empathetic client-provider interactions. In addition to learning and practicing a core set of IPC/C skills, providers also learn to gauge and monitor their performance by using self-improvement checklists. At the end of the workshop, participants design individualized action plans to transfer IPC/C skills to their organizations. JHU/PCS upgraded the curriculum for delivery on CD-ROM in order to meet the growing demand for providers trained to deliver quality services.

Benefits of Interactive Multimedia

Within the past ten years, the use of computer-based training (CBT) has gained greater acceptance as a cost-efficient medium that can be used to deliver standardized messages to large numbers of people. The acceptance of CBT, particularly in the field of public health, is due, in part, to the increased availability of powerful, yet low-cost, computers. In addition, a growing body of research has systematized the benefits of CBT vis-à-vis traditional training methodologies. Among the benefits of CBT are:

1. making information personally relevant;
2. allowing the user to control the pace of learning;
3. building confidence by providing a safe learning environment in which users can practice skills free of judgment; and
4. using a variety of media to present information and reinforce knowledge.

The interactive multimedia CD-ROM provides numerous opportunities for individual user or group interactions and accommodates a wide range of learning styles. During the training, facilitators guide the users as they apply knowledge learned and control program pacing. The embedded interactive activities allow the user to become highly involved in the instructional experience to increase their levels of learning, generate positive attitudes, and promote application of new skills acquired during the training. The CD-ROM also relies on enter-educate principles and group work. JHU/PCS experience producing CBT applications has shown that adding real-life drama vignetes and testimonies to CBT applications and structuring the work for groups of two or three participants (as opposed to individual use of computers) increase the engagement with and retention of information.

The CD-ROM has been used throughout the Latin America region as part of technical capacity- building efforts, especially in Ministry of Health training centers and university-level medical and counseling programs. In this way, the CD-ROM helps introduce quality standards not only in the on-going delivery of services, but also at the pre-service level. The CD-ROM training can be offered in conjunction with or in addition to existing workshops.