Evaluating a peer education program for advance end-of-life care planning for older adults: The peer educators' perspective

Using the Aldrevast Sjuharad (AVS) model, this paper evaluates how far researchers succeeded in working in a participatory and responsive manner with peer educators to develop and pilot an education program for advance end-of-life care planning. An action research approach was used to develop a guide that sought to enable older adults to obtain information about treatment and care options. Peer educators reviewed the utility of materials for inclusion in the guide, which they helped develop and write, and participated in a three-day training program in preparation for facilitating discussion groups. A range of evaluative data was collected on an ongoing basis to obtain peer educators' perspectives concerning the extent to which they felt the research team was responsive to their needs and views, using the AVS model as a framework for the evaluative process. This user-focused model requires researchers to consider the ways in which older adults' involvement in a research study offers equal access, enhances awareness, encourages action and enables action. Evaluative data revealed that the peer educators felt that they had participated as equal members of the team, that the training program responded to their needs, and that they had learnt from the project. All have continued to work on further research projects to develop, test, and extend the material more widely in the United Kingdom and have used the guides within their own community groups. Evaluation using the AVS model demonstrated that it is possible for researchers to work in an innovative and responsive way with peer educators.