Bright Futures Launches Pilot Training Intervention
On November 20, 2004, 15 practices throughout the country convened to attend the first workshop of the Bright Futures Training Intervention With Office Staff to Improve Preventive and Developmental Services in Practice. The goal of this project is to develop and identify specific strategies and tools that will enable a variety of practices to implement Bright Futures approaches that will enhance the delivery of preventive and developmental services to children younger than 5 years.
The Bright Futures staff is working with the Center for Healthcare Improvement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on this project. The practices will be involved in a yearlong pilot test of a curriculum and systems change toolkit aimed at applying a Bright Futures framework to preventive and developmental services. The pilot framework, made up of quality improvement ofice systems approaches, consists of the following 6 components:
- Use of a preventive services summary sheet
- Use of structured tools to assess the child and family's developmental and behavioral needs
- Evaluation of parental strengths, involvement, and needs including assessment of protective factors
- Use of recall and reminder systems
- Linking of the child and family to appropriate community resources and responding to population based concerns
- Use of assessment strategies at well-child visits to identify children with special health care needs and determine appropriate follow-up
The pilot practices will receive training and support through workshops, conference calls, and a group email list. In between workshops and conference calls, the practices will apply small change strategies based on quality improvement concepts and collect data to measure improvement. The data collection has been designed to be easily incorporated into a practice's daily routine. Once the curriculum and toolkit have been finalized, Bright Futures plans to disseminate the training on a broader scale.
For further information please contact Erin Burgess either by phone at 919-966-0043 or via email at erin_burgess@unc.edu.
Written 04/01/2005
