94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1441368
This article is part of the Research Topic Learning Interventions and Training: Providing Support during Health Emergencies View all 17 articles
Co-creation of Staff Training to Address Health-Related Social Needs in Emergencies
Provisionally accepted- 1 Baylor Scott and White Health, Temple, United States
- 2 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, United States
Background: Health-related social needs (HRSN), such as housing and transportation barriers, contribute to poor health outcomes and increased healthcare costs. Patient navigators help connect patients to community resources, but workforce training gaps are a challenge. The Strengthening Peer AHC Navigation (SPAN) study aimed to enhance navigation training during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Methods: Using a stakeholder-driven peer planning approach, SPAN co-developed a quality improvement plan for patient navigation training. Training focused on housing and transportation navigation and included didactic sessions, hands-on case studies, and biweekly expert consultations. Self-efficacy surveys measured navigator confidence pre-and post-training, and changes in navigation case resolution rates were assessed. Results: Seventeen navigators participated in training. Self-efficacy scores improved, particularly in housing and transportation navigation. Resolved navigation cases increased by 29% (p = 0.001) over six months post-training. Participants reported increased confidence, knowledge, and empathy for patients with HRSN. Conclusions: The SPAN peer planning model successfully developed and implemented an adaptive navigation training program, improving navigator confidence and patient outcomes. Findings highlight the value of stakeholder-driven training and ongoing expert support in strengthening the social needs workforce. Further research should explore sustainable models for workforce development in healthcare settings.
Keywords: Adaptive training, patient navigation, health related social needs, Public health emergency, AHC Model
Received: 30 May 2024; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Highfield and Ferguson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Linda Highfield, Baylor Scott and White Health, Temple, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.