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Innovative Strategies for Recruiting & Retaining Today’s Health Center Workforce

Duration: 4 hours | Delivery: Two 2-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session helps health centers strengthen the workforce structures that directly affect their cancer screening programs. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Identify workforce drivers that influence screening operations, outreach, and navigation.
• Explore modern retention strategies that stabilize teams responsible for cancer screening activities.
• Assess contributors to turnover that disrupt screening workflows and follow-up processes.
• Implement communication and engagement practices that improve staff consistency in screening-related roles.
• Develop a workforce stability plan to support sustainable cancer screening performance.

Burnout Prevention & Workforce Well-Being

Duration: 4 hours | Delivery: Two 2-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session strengthens a center’s ability to sustain a healthy, resilient screening workforce. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Recognize early signs of staff fatigue that impact outreach, navigation, and follow-up.
• Apply practices that reduce burnout among teams engaged in cancer screening and patient coordination.
• Integrate well-being strategies into daily workflows to maintain reliable screening operations.
• Build supportive team cultures that improve communication during screening cycles.
• Apply sustainable practices that improve staff readiness to engage patients in screening discussions.

Leading Your Cancer Screening Program Through Rapid Change

Duration: 4 hours | Delivery: Two 2-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session equips leaders to guide screening teams through internal and external changes. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Apply foundational change management principles to stabilize cancer screening workflows.
• Respond effectively to new technologies, EHR tools, SI-enabled features, or evolving screening guidelines.
• Strengthen communication across departments during workflow changes affecting screening.
• Address and manage resistance that disrupts patient outreach or follow-up processes.
• Develop a structured approach for implementing improvements to screening operations.

Lean Yellow Belt: Improving Cancer Screening Workflows

Duration: 14 hours | Delivery: 4 hours virtual, 9 hours in-person, 1-hour online assessment

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA program equips health center teams with practical Lean Six Sigma tools to improve workflows for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Apply Lean principles and the DMAIC framework to improve cancer screening processes.
• Identify waste, bottlenecks, and missed opportunities affecting screening performance.
• Use process mapping and root cause analysis to identify workflow inefficiencies.
• Implement standard work, visual management, and error-prevention strategies to improve screening coordination and follow-up.
• Develop a measurable, 30-day improvement plan to strengthen screening performance and sustain results.

Building Momentum & Sustainability in QI Initiatives

Duration: 2 hours | Delivery: Two 1-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session helps health centers maintain long-term improvements in cancer screening. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Identify common factors that reduce momentum in screening initiatives.
• Strengthen role clarity and accountability for screening outreach, follow-up, and documentation.
• Implement simple monitoring systems to track screening progress.
• Use PDSA cycles to test and refine cancer screening workflow improvements.
• Create a sustainability plan aligned with HRSA’s continuous improvement expectations.

New: Rural Health Strategies for Improving Screenings

Duration: 4 hours | Delivery: Two 2-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA engagement helps rural health centers address geographic, workforce, and access barriers through practical screening strategies. Teams will build their capacity to:

Session-by-session outline
Session 1 (2 hours): Assessment, core concepts, and applied discussion.
Session 2 (2 hours): Practical exercises, workflow/application planning, and measures for follow-through.

• Assess rural-specific barriers, including transportation, specialist access, staffing, and patient follow-through.
• Develop community partnerships and trusted-messenger outreach approaches to expand screening access.
• Apply rapid-cycle improvement methods to reduce delays and missed screening opportunities.
• Select meaningful screening process and outcome measures and establish a practical monitoring plan.
• Create an actionable rural screening improvement plan with assigned owners and sustainability steps.

New: Clinical Workflows and SI: Practical Adoption in Health Centers

Duration: 4 hours | Delivery: Two 2-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA engagement supports the responsible, practical adoption of SI-enabled tools to strengthen cancer screening workflows and patient follow-up. Teams will build their capacity to:

Session-by-session outline
Session 1 (2 hours): Assessment, core concepts, and applied discussion.
Session 2 (2 hours): Practical exercises, workflow/application planning, and measures for follow-through.

• Identify high-value SI and automation use cases for screening identification, outreach, scheduling, and follow-up.
• Assess workflow, data, infrastructure, and staff readiness before selecting an SI-supported intervention.
• Evaluate SI tools for evidence, reliability, privacy, consent, human oversight, and potential failure modes.
• Map a screening workflow and identify where SI can support—not replace—clinical judgment and staff responsibilities.
• Develop a small-scale adoption plan with governance, success measures, and monitoring responsibilities.

Introduction to Motivational Interviewing to Improve Screening Rates

Duration: 3 hours | Delivery: Two 90-minute sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session equips staff to use MI techniques to enhance patient engagement in screenings. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Use MI skills (OARS) during screening outreach, reminders, and follow-up calls.
• Confidently address patient concerns that lead to screening refusal or test kit non-return.
• Reduce missed appointments by improving communication and patient readiness.
• Integrate MI strategies into daily screening workflows and team huddles.
• Strengthen rapport that encourages patients to complete recommended screenings.

Strengthening Referral Pathways & Specialty Partnerships

Duration: 3 hours | Delivery: Two 90-minute sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session helps health centers improve diagnostic resolution after abnormal screenings. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Analyze referral workflows to identify delays in diagnostic follow-up.
• Strengthen coordination between primary care, navigation, and external specialty partners.
• Apply best practices for managing abnormal results and reducing time to diagnosis.
• Explore partnership models with imaging centers, GI specialists, mobile units, and hospitals.
• Build sustainable systems for referral tracking, closed-loop communication, and timely resolution.

Strategies for Building Effective Outreach Teams

Duration: 3 hours | Delivery: Two 90-minute sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA session helps health centers improve outreach performance. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Define outreach workflows that align with screening goals and clinical processes.
• Apply targeted strategies to engage patients who are overdue for screenings.
• Strengthen collaboration between outreach teams, navigators, and providers.
• Use scripts and messaging approaches that improve screening acceptance.
• Develop a structured outreach plan that supports sustained screening improvements.

New: Creating Trust & Psychological Safety to Drive Cancer Screening Adherence

Duration: 4 hours | Delivery: Two 2-hour sessions

Capacity-Building Objectives: This TA engagement strengthens patient-centered, trauma-informed communication throughout the cancer screening journey. Teams will build their capacity to:

• Recognize how trauma, stress, prior healthcare experiences, and fear may influence screening decisions.
• Identify communication behaviors that build or undermine trust and psychological safety.
• Practice trauma-informed listening, respectful language, and shared decision-making during sensitive screening conversations.
• Adapt outreach, scheduling, screening, and follow-up conversations to reduce hesitation and disengagement.
• Create a team-based communication improvement plan with practical measures of patient engagement and screening follow-through.