Public Health Network Cymru: COVID-19 Webinar Series International Horizon Scanning and Learning Evaluation Summary Report Catherine Evans Public Health Network Cymru October 2020
1.
Introduction
Public Health Network Cymru is hosted by the Wider Determinants of Health Unit based within Public Health Wales and provides a range of support to practitioners and researchers across all sectors that influence any aspect of public health and health improvement in Wales. Amongst the services we provide is a seminar series that seeks to promote best practice based on existing and emerging evidence. The series covers a diverse range of topics and recent examples have included Nutrition in Early Years, Learning Disabilities and Homelessness. A vision statement for the seminar series is presented below: The Public Health Wales Seminar Series will engage stakeholders on contemporary public health issues through lectures, debates and conversations, in order to enhance knowledge and understanding and contribute to present and future public health dialogue. The aims of the seminar series are:
To provide new opportunities for learning on a range of contemporary public health issues affecting wales; To develop public health knowledge amongst a wide audience; To share and further enhance the evidence base for public health.
Due to COVID-19 and the need to follow social distancing guidance, we have put our face-to-face annual seminar series on hold. However we felt it was important to continue to share and learn during this unprecedented time. Therefore we started a series of COVID-19 related webinars in July 2020. The first webinar was entitled COVID-19: In a Nutshell and the second webinar was entitled COVID-19 Health Impact Assessment ‘Staying at Home and Social Distancing Policy’ in Wales. Both theses webinars along with their evaluation reports can be viewed on the Public Health Network Cymru website. This evaluation report is for the third webinar which will be used to further plan and improve the user experience of future webinars.
2.
COVID-19: International Horizon Scanning and Learning
This webinar was held on 30 July 2020 using Microsoft Teams live events software. The webinar was facilitated by Dr Ciarán Humphreys, Consultant in Public Health, Wider Determinants of Health Unit, Public Health Wales. The webinar was delivered by the following World Health Organization Collaboration Centre team members:
Lauren Couzens, Senior Project Manager (Global Health) Anna Stielke, International Evidence Development Officer Mischa Van Eimeren, Senior Policy and International Evidence Development Officer (Brexit) Angie Kirby, Project Support Officer James Allen, Public Health Scientist (International Health)
The International Horizon Scanning and Learning work-stream was initiated following the evolving COVID-19 public health response and recovery plans in Wales. The work-stream is delivered by the World Health Organization Collaboration Centre on Investment for Health and Well-being Directorate, Public Health Wales to Welsh Government. The webinar gave an overview of reports produced by the centre which focus on drawing together COVID-19 international evidence to better understand and explore solutions to address the on-going and emerging health, wellbeing, social and economic impacts of the outbreak. The individual presentations are available by contacting publichealth.network@wales.nhs.uk or can be accessed on the Public Health Network Cymru website.
3.
Evaluation
One hundred and two people registered for the webinar and 50 attended on the day. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties, attendees could not access the webinar from the beginning of the presentation. Another link was sent to all those who registered 15 minutes in to the webinar. This meant that just over half of those people who registered may not have been able to access the webinar, however a link to the live recording was sent out after the webinar, so that it could be viewed in full. As of the 15th October, the live recording has had 91 views.
The following table illustrates which sector attendees represented on the day: Sector Public Health Wales Central Team Public Health Wales Local Team Local Health Board Welsh Government Local Authority Third Sector Academic Other: Housing
Number 20 5 5 2 2 9 5 2
Attendees were asked to complete an anonymous online evaluation survey via Survey Monkey following the webinar. The response rate to the survey was 14% (N=7). Two reminder e-mails were sent to attendees following the webinar however the numbers of people completing the survey was very low. This could be due to the issues around access to the webinar. 3.1. Quantitative results Survey respondents were asked whether or not they were members of Public Health Network Cymru. Five were existing members of the Network. In the week following the seminar the Network had eight new member registrations many of which could be seen as a direct result of the webinar, and/or attendees promoting the Network in their areas. As Public Health Network Cymru hasn’t hosted many live webinars it was felt necessary to ask attendees if they had any technical difficulties participating in the webinar. Four people mentioned that they were unable to access the webinar at the beginning of the presentation. However there were no other issues stated. Another question on the evaluation form asked attendees to rank from 1 to 5, (where 1 is not at all useful and 5 is very useful) ‘How useful did you find the webinar?’ Four out of the 7 responses said that they found the webinar very useful.
Attendees were asked to choose from a series of answers and/or provide their own response to the following question; ‘As a result of participating in the webinar which actions are you going to take (select all that apply)?’ Four respondents stated they would share the presentation with colleagues and four respondents said they would find further information on the topic. Three respondents said they would discuss the contents of webinar with colleagues to inform action and one respondent stated they would recommend Public Health Network Cymru to colleagues. Two respondents answered ‘other’ and responded that they would “use it in teaching environmental and public health students” It is important to note that attendees could choose multiple answers to this questions. 3.2 Qualitative results The evaluation survey also asked free text questions. The responses to these questions are documented in the next sections. Do you have any suggestions for future webinar topics? “A webinar on the science behind COVID-19 measures, including face coverings” “End of life care and bereavement support” “Impact of pandemic on front line workers wellbeing” “Third world countries and COVID” Do you have any additional comments about the webinar? “Very well presented and informative. Would have been interesting to hear how Welsh Government and Public Health Wales may be progressing some of the topics in the IHS Report” “More please!” “Very well moderated, kept to time” “Very informative and professionally presented” “Interesting webinar. This is my second so far and they have been useful”
3.3 Live question and answer session During the webinar attendees had the opportunity to ask questions to the presenter. These were put to the presenter by the facilitator during the remaining time of the event. Attendees asked the following questions:
“Was there a difference in access to health care between primary and secondary services and between planned /long term conditions care and unplanned/ emergency care?”
“Please does this recommended Vitamin D dose apply to children under 10 years old?”
“Which countries seem to have managed to continue their essential healthcare services better than the UK?”
“Is there any evidence regarding vitamin D and the inequalities due to socio economic position as those in lower socio economic positions are less likely to be able to afford supplements/have gardens to ensure adequate exposure to sunlight?”
“Really interesting topics. Very interested in Vitamin D. Is there a best time of day or year to have sun exposure or best parts of body to expose? Does it need to be bright sun or just daylight?”
“Is it better to use washable PPE?”
“Is there an ongoing research/evaluation in plan to look at indirect impact and cost of covid19 pandemic in Wales?”
“Do we know which countries are doing the best job of managing impacts of discarded PPE. Can we learn anything?”
“Were other countries more advanced than Wales because they had positive cases before us or more cases than we had or other reasons?”
“Is there anything specific that you would advise BAME individual with no underlying health condition?”
“Would we expect to see more hospitalisation and more people losing lives to Covid-19 across the EU due to recent increases in cases?”
“How does Germany do contact tracing and isolation? Any research on how this impacts on R numbers across Europe?”
“Can we have international horizon scanning on testing strategies including newly talked about Rapid Antigen Tests?”
“We hear that COVID will not be as bad as it was in March/April compared to Nov /Dec 2020. How far is it true?”
Additional comments captured from attendees immediately following the end of the webinar were as follows. “I had difficulties joining but perseverance paid off! It was a good webinar, very interesting especially the link with Vit D” “I was unable to access this event, can you let me know when it is available via your website”
4.
Summary
Overall, the evaluation data from attendees who completed the survey and comments captured during and after would suggest the webinar was successful and positively received. The only negative responses were from those who could not access the webinar at the start of the presentation. The team have now put a number of actions in place to avoid this happening in the future. The aims of the webinars have been met in the following ways: i)
To provide new opportunities for learning on a range of contemporary public health issues affecting wales
The webinar provided an opportunity for delegates to increase their knowledge about COVID-19 and in particular the international evidence to better understand and explore solutions to address the on-going and emerging health, wellbeing, social and economic impacts of the outbreak. From the questions asked by attendees it was evident to see that there was particular interest in how other countries are responding to the pandemic as well as the link between Vitamin D and inequalities. ii)
To develop public health knowledge amongst a wide audience
The webinars are aimed at people not only working in Public Health Wales and the NHS but from a range of sectors. The majority of attendees were from Public Health Wales (both central and local teams) but there was also a high representation from Local Health Board, Academic and the Third
Sector colleagues. There was also representation from Local Authority, Welsh Government and the Housing sector colleagues. A number of delegates said that they would be disseminating the learning gained from these events to work colleagues to help inform action. The webinars allow for much larger audiences than our face to face seminars could accommodate. This combined with the webinar recordings and presentations being available to view via the website after the event, enables the information from the day to be disseminated to a much wider audience from a range of sectors. iii)
To share and further enhance the evidence base for public health
The presentation highlighted the current situation, emerging evidence base and recent research on COVID-19 particularly focusing at an international level. It is unfortunate that webinars do not have the same networking opportunities for attendees that face to face events offer. However the team are exploring further platforms which may allow attendees to network and have discussions on similar topics. This will allow partnerships to be developed which will further enhance some of the recent and emerging evidence to inform future practice.
5.
Further information
Further information and recordings of the webinars are available on the Public Health Network Cymru website or by contacting publichealth.network@wales.nhs.uk