Training lay health workers to promote post-treatment breast cancer surveillance in African American breast cancer survivors: Development and implementation of a curriculum

Background. African American breast cancer survivors are less adherent to guidelines for post-treatment breast cancer surveillance compared to White survivors. Survivors in Spirit (SIS) is an intervention that addresses this problem through lay health workers (LHWs). Methods. African American women were trained as LHWs using a structured curriculum. Trainees' intervention knowledge was assessed before and after training. Results. There was a substantial increase in the mean percentage of correct items from pre- to post-test for the trainees as a group. Conclusions. LHWs can be effectively prepared to conduct interventions focusing on the complexities of breast cancer recurrence and surveillance.