University of South Dakota
Report date
February 2023
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
The personal commitment of the collaborators to the project was instrumental in making progress. All the collaborators on the team (USD Nursing faculty, SHS faculty, and community partners like Avera Health and SDAHO) had strong personal reasons to be part of a Palliative Care Telementoring group and they worked hard to make the project a success.
In addition, the content expert that we engaged in the program were aware of the power of the telementoring platform to reach a wide audience which helped us provide a strong and relevant curriculum about Palliative Care.
In addition, the content expert that we engaged in the program were aware of the power of the telementoring platform to reach a wide audience which helped us provide a strong and relevant curriculum about Palliative Care.
Key lessons learned
We learned that scheduling free educational programs during the summer months is not a good idea. We experienced a decline in attendance during July and it seems that the momentum was lost to some extent. For example, we went from 43 attendees in June to only 22 in July. In the future, we will send out more reminders in order to keep up attendance.
Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving
Our team consists of several different professions, practice partners and service providers. It is “interprofessional”, which is an important component of our success. It helps us understand a problem from multiple different perspectives. Flexibility or adaptability and respect for others are also key elements.
Other key elements of Community Innovation
Our team consists of several different professions, practice partners and service providers. It is “interprofessional”, which is an important component of our success. It helps us understand a problem from multiple different perspectives. Flexibility or adaptability and respect for others are also key elements.
Understanding the problem
The work we have done has reinforced that telementoring will be in even greater demand going forward than imagined when we first formulated our plan for Palliative Care ECHO telementoring in South Dakota. Since health care is becoming more specialty-driven and fragmented into niches, it will be ever more important to support each other through online learning communities. However, we also understand that we need to start measuring patient outcomes directly to see if our interventions are generating an impact on care consumers.
If you could do it all over again...
We learned that it takes a very long time and much patience to build relationships with community stakeholders. The most important element contributing to success here seems to be good communication. Community partners are priceless and the relationships must be nurtured. There may be turnover but that doesn't mean that the individuals who have a stake in the project can't be kept engaged. They will continue to be helpful.
One last thought
It is amazing to see how the Covid pandemic has changed community structures. We will need to show support for each other because people may have lost touch with their communities and mental health issues are affecting almost every community.