Just Care: usability testing of e-learning modules for peer caregivers living in prison

Abstract

Training men and women who live in prison to assist corrections staff with the care of growing numbers of older, sicker, cognitively impaired, and dying people in prison is an innovative and viable option to help meet pressing care demands. The purpose of this paper is to report findings from the usability testing of the fully developed Just Care electronic learning program for training carefully vetted people living in prison to assist staff with geriatric and end-of-life care. Research ethics approvals and informed consent were obtained. There were two rounds of usability testing conducted via videoconference. Interdisciplinary staff (i.e., corrections specialists, supervisors, nurses, and chaplains) and people living in prison were recruited from one men’s and one women’s prison. Fifteen participants completed the testing in each round. Results include participant demographics, concerns and areas for improvement by severity level of programming, and mean scores for both participant groups on the System Usability Scale. Overall, both the incarcerated and staff participants found the program easy to navigate and the interactive content was useful, engaging, and relevant to caring for aging and dying people who are incarcerated. Findings will be used to refine Just Care before usability testing with a larger sample.

Keywords:

• usability testing
• e-learning
• training
• prison
• peer caregiver
• older adult

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Aging under Grant #R44AG057239 [MPIs: S.J. Loeb & B. Walkosz].