Training in 2007

Findings from a survey conducted during the 11th Triennial CHR conference in August, 2006 revealed that many CHRs received their Basic CHR training in the 1980s or even before that. Very few CHRs have received a CHR Refresher Course. Some respondents listed training sessions that they attended that may have been on a particular topic and considered that to be a "CHR Refresher".

IHS CHR Headquarters provides Basic and Refresher courses annually. For information to apply at one of five locations, see the 2007 CHR Training Schedule and Brochure available on the IHS CHR Program website,
click here [PDF - 100k]. www.ihs.gov/NonMedicalPrograms/chr/documents/CHRTrainingScheduleandBrochure2007.pdf

Question 33 of the survey asked the participant to list in priority their three training topic preferences. The results by area are below.

We see from these results that a primary concern CHRs have are the many factors related to diabetes. An important thing we should all focus on with diabetes education is that it can be directly attributed to lifestyle choices. We tend to treat the results of diabetes and not the causes. When planning training exercises in the area of diabetes, prevention and control should be a strong emphasis.

For the most part, many of these topics are of a continuing education nature that could be arranged with local resources. If you are already using local resources—that's great, please share your experiences with your colleagues through this newsletter. Arranging local training sessions can be burdensome but it is an activity that we really encourage.