Co-Facilitator's Role in Virtual CenteringPregnancy Sessions

Hi Helen and Jhovana,
Thanks for this sharing of ideas for staff facilitators.  For more help with the staff facilitator role and planning the sessions, CHI has put a Virtual Group Resources tab on the Dashboard of CenteringConnects to provide a variety of virtual group assistance.  First there is a Guidance for tips on how to move in-person groups to a virtual format including what the staff facilitator can do with the main room of participants while the provider is doing a clinical assessment with each patient if the breakout room.  This written document is the basis for the prerecorded Guidance for Adapting Centering Groups to Virtual Format webinars which you can watch in the webinar section on the Portal. After the Guidance link is a link to a document in which openings, meditations/mindfulness, activities and closings are listed as adaptable or not to a virtual format and how to do it if not obvious. There are links for checklists for facilitators and participants on what you need to prepare for prior to the virtual groups; group guidelines, conversation starters and Leader Kit cards set up so you can screen share with your group as well as Zoom tips and more.  Please go through this valuable resource which will help with planning your sessions.  CHI has been using Zoom for several years and this is the platform we know the best, but whatever virtual platform you use, make sure you spend time learning the virtual format, tools to use or not use in virtual groups and practice with a staff maybe at lunch(?) so everyone has time to play around and get comfortable with the format.  We also recommend that a staff person set up an individual meeting with each patient coming into the group, prior to the first virtual group session, and make sure they know how to get on the platform and what device they are using so you don't spent lots of time at your first group just managing technology with participants.  

People can use the chat function several ways:  patients can chat everyone container/parking lot issues to discuss, or they can private chat the staff facilitator their vitals taken at home or private chat someone in the group for a dyad conversation and no one else will see these private chats.  It's also a great way for participants to respond to something asked in the group and they don't want other family members to hear what they said!

Helen, your idea of staff facilitators doing the initial planning and then review with the Midwife sound like a good plan.  Depending on the amount of time you are planning, the flow can be pretty much the same as an in-person group, just adapted to a virtual format.  Remember your first Centering group session?  I remember mine feeling so disorganized as neither the participants nor the staff had done it before.  By the fourth session, things got so much smoother as we were all getting used to a standard flow.  The virtual group is the same - this is a new experience for us all - each session feels a little better as both facilitators and participants get used to the change!  

This past week on 7.21, we had a COVID Conversation call that focused on starting CenteringPregnancy virtual groups.  We had two sites sharing their best practices for how to do this and the recording should be up on our pre-recorded webinar section on the Portal by the end of the week.

Our next COVID Conversation call, where sites have discussions about how groups are going, is on August 11, Tuesday, at 3 pm.  This call is focused on starting CenteringParenting virtual groups  and we have 2 sites who have been successful organizing and running parenting groups in a virtual format sharing their best practices.  

Our next Guidance webinar is scheduled for August 20, Thursday, at 2 pm ET. Come join a live demonstration of how to run a Centering group in a virtual format!

More important than almost anything is to have fun in your sessions!