Cancer education for home health care workers: A process evaluation

Background. In this article, we evaluate adoption of cancer education into the mandatory in-service training of home health attendants (HHA) comprised predominantly of African American and Hispanic women. Methods. Three home health care training agencies in Bronx, NY, incorporated cancer prevention and outreach education into HHA training. Results. Across 3 years, 87% (n = 2513) of HHAs received the intervention and disseminated it to 1600 clients/family/ friends. HHAs reported high program satisfaction (98%) and interest (82%) in cancer outreach. Agency staff reported more benefits than costs to implementation. Conclusions. The home health care training agency appears an accessible and effective bridge for disseminating cancer education to the underserved.