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Advancing Late-Life Trauma-Informed Care Education: Development and Evaluation of an Educational Podcast

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Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may emerge in late life in the context of illness, role changes, and life review, leading to complications in disease management. The “Talking Later” podcast was developed as an accessible educational product to improve knowledge about late-life PTSD. We describe the process of systematically developing a ten-episode podcast following Kern’s six-step curricular model. Following release, the podcast was evaluated via listenership analytics, external clinician feedback survey (N = 45), and internal team survey (N = 9). In 22 months since release, the podcast was played or downloaded 10,124 times across 45 countries. In the external survey, 97% of clinician experts reported the episodes as engaging and informational; 87% stated that no more than general knowledge of PTSD was required to enjoy the podcast. Qualitative analysis of open-ended feedback items found that participants were interested in learning about additional comorbidities and diversity issues related to late-life trauma reengagement. Both the external and internal survey identified discrete elements for improvement. Results suggest the podcast was engaging and informational to a diverse clinical audience. Podcasts represent a relatively new way to deliver educational content. Further consideration of their pedagogical value and limits is warranted.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the VA Office of Rural Health (ORH) for funding this program and the VA Institute for Learning, Education, and Development (ILEAD) formerly the Employee Education System (EES) for their help in the production of this podcast. This material is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Contents do not represent the views of VA or the United States Government. Special thanks to our guests who were interviewed on the podcast, including Drs. Anica Pless Kaiser, Hannah Bashian, Anna Etchin, and Zachary Sager. We also thank Sean Gamble, Andrew Stephens, and Ron Johnson for their production support. Most importantly, we’d like to express our deepest gratitude for the Veterans who allowed us to share their life stories for this project.

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the United States Veterans Health Administration (VA) Office of Rural Health (ORH).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

    Rachel Weiskittle

  2. VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 South Huntington Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA, 02130, USA

    Lola Baird, Kelly O’Malley, Anica Pless Kaiser, Hannah Bashian & Jennifer Moye

  3. New England Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Boston, MA, USA

    Lola Baird & Jennifer Moye

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Kelly O’Malley, Hannah Bashian & Jennifer Moye

  5. National Center for PTSD, Boston, MA, USA

    Anica Pless Kaiser

  6. Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Anica Pless Kaiser

Authors
  1. Rachel Weiskittle
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  2. Lola Baird
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  3. Kelly O’Malley
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  4. Anica Pless Kaiser
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  5. Hannah Bashian
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  6. Jennifer Moye
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Contributions

Study conception and design: all authors; Data Collection and analysis: Baird, Moye; Draft manuscript preparation: Weiskittle, Baird, Moye. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Moye.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Rachel Weiskittle, Lola Baird, Kelly O’Malley, Anica Pless Kaiser, Hannah Bashian and Jennifer Moye declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed consent

The podcast evaluation work was reviewed for research determination following local research and development (R&D) policies. The evaluation was determined to be exempt from R&D review as educational research.

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Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

An earlier version of this work was presented as a poster at the Gerontological Society of America’s 72nd Annual Scientific Meeting (Weiskittle et al., 2022).

Appendices

Appendix 1


External Evaluation Survey

  1. 1.

    The speakers in this episode were easy to understand.

    1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree

    Other comments?

  2. 2.

    The Veteran’s story was engaging.

    1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree

    Other comments?

  3. 3.

    The host discussion was engaging

    1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree

    Other comments?

  4. 4.

    The host discussion was informational.

    1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree

    Other comments?

  5. 5.

    Expertise/more than general knowledge of PTSD was required to enjoy this podcast.

    1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree

    Other comments?

  6. 6.

    How do you see yourself using this podcast, if at all?

  7. 7.

    We are considering recording a second season. Do you have any suggestions about changes we should consider making for the next season? Additionally, do you think that there were elements of this season that worked especially well that should be included in the second season?

  8. 8.

    Do you have any additional comments about this podcast?

Appendix 2


Internal Evaluation Survey

  1. (1)

    How would you rate the overall quality of the episode?

    1 = Poor 2 = Fair 3 = Neutral 4 = Good 5 = Very Good

  2. (2)

    Were you able to easily identify the education theme(s) of the episode?

  3. (3)

    What worked well during this episode?

  4. (4)

    If we were to do another podcast season, what would you suggest changing?

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Weiskittle, R., Baird, L., O’Malley, K. et al. Advancing Late-Life Trauma-Informed Care Education: Development and Evaluation of an Educational Podcast. J Clin Psychol Med Settings (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-024-10019-3

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