Development of a Training Curriculum for Health Communication with the Elderly for Village Health Volunteers in Ban Mai Subdistrict, Mueang District, Pathum Thani Province Based on Taba Hilda’s Curriculum Model

Abstract

The objectives of this study are 1) to develop a training curriculum for health communication with the elderly for village health volunteers in Ban Mai Subdistrict, Mueang District, Pathum Thani Province, and 2) to assess the effectiveness of the training curriculum for health communication with the elderly for village health volunteers in Ban Mai Subdistrict, Mueang District, Pathum Thani Province. The research employed a Research and Development (R&D) design. The research instruments encompassed questionnaires designed to evaluate health communication competency, interview forms, the quality of curriculum assessment forms, and questionnaires to gauge the training curriculum's utilization. The study's target group consisted of 32 village health volunteers working in the area of Ban Mai Subdistrict, Mueang District, Pathum Thani Province. The findings revealed that the respondents had the highest demand for enhancing their self-knowledge capacity (62.50%), with the next most significant priorities being improving their understanding of the communication process (53.12%), increasing motivation for communication (40.62%), and refining communication skills (18.75%), respectively. The findings served as the foundation for creating the training curriculum encompassing 19 training hours, based on the needs assessment survey. Additionally, the content curriculum structure was revised to be consistent with the findings of the quality of curriculum assessment, comprising 5 topics: 1) self-awareness, 2) communication motivation, 3) health communication and competency components, 4) communication skills, and 5) health communication channel design. The curriculum's effectiveness was evaluated in all areas: context, input, process, and product, and consistently rated at the highest level. The outcomes of the training program indicated a statistically significant increase in health communication effectiveness among the elderly participants after undergoing training, compared to their pre-training levels, with a significance level of .05.