Transcript Empowering Minority Communities With Online Health

Empowering Minority Communities With Online
Health Information: A curriculum Development and
Information Dissemination Success Story
Marie St. Rose, PhD, RN
Norfolk State University
June 9, 2008
Introduction
• The spread of HIV among college students
continues to be of public concern.
• Specifically, there is an urgent need to develop
strategies to combat the threat of HIV/AIDS
among African American college students
(Chng, Carlon, & Toynes, 2006).
Background
Program planners, educators, and health professionals are
challenged to find more effective ways to convey HIV health
information .
The internet has become an important channel for
disseminating health information and researchers are
providing empirical evidence about the quality of this
information (Schiavo, 2008) .
Although many college students are computer literate and
have internet skills, some lack the ability to find credible
health information for their personal use
Compared to other racial groups, African Americans are less
likely to have access to the internet (Suarez-Balcazar, Kinney,
Cassey, & Muhammad, 2005).
Background cont’d
As part of an initiative to improve the health of African Americans,
the United Negro College Fund Special Programs (UNCFSP) and the
National Library of Medicine (NLM) supported and funded a
research-based project at Norfolk State University titled “Enhancing
Educational Opportunities in HIV Prevention and Risk Reduction for
African American College Students through Online Health
Information and Community Service Learning”
The program was delivered at Norfolk State University.
A detailed description of the program is published (Journal of the
National Society of Allied Health, Volume 5, number 6spring/summer 2008)
For the purpose of this presentation, two elements of the program
will be discussed
Two elements of the program
• Training students in ways of improving their
skills in obtaining HIV information from the
online resources of the National Library of
Medicine
• Infusing HIV information into the curriculum
content of undergraduate programs
Training
The students participated in three formal
workshops (i.e., the NLM competency training).
The first workshop was conducted by a librarian
and was provided to 10 peer educators. The two
other workshops were conducted by peer
educators and were provided to program
participants
The training involved teaching the students how
to access, navigate, and retrieve HIV prevention
and risk reduction information from the online
resources of the National Library of Medicine
Training cont’d
The program participants provided the
National Library of Medicine’s competency
training to another group of young African
Americans on campus and in the nearby
communities
(St. Rose, Fuller, & Jones, 2008).
Curriculum
The curriculum was expanded to include HIV
information into the following courses:
• HIM 120- Medical Terminology
• BIO 351 – Principles of Genetics
• HRP 290 – African American Health
Curriculum cont’d
• An HIV 101 online course was developed and
it is available in blackboard
• HIV information is communicated through
brochures and flyers
• The NLM website http:aids.nlm.nih.gov is
posted on the webpage of NSU library
Summary of findings
The training was implemented with little difficulty
because the students and community members had
the skills to use the computer
The students showed eagerness in learning how to
seek quality health information online
The hands- on skill training was appreciated because
it covered a wide scope of HIV information that was
unknown to the students
The students stated that the training was
instrumental and helped them to commit to making
better health decisions
Summary of findings cont’d
The students expressed that the training provided an
opportunity to develop leadership and communication skills.
The students reported that the amount of HIV/AIDS
information and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS statistics
overwhelmed and shocked the students and community
members.
The students reported that the training probably increased
their understanding about their attitudes, beliefs, behaviors,
and expectations about their health.
A total of 1,040 young people received the NLM competency
training (St. Rose, Fuller, & Jones, 2008)
Relevance to practice
• The students who received the training will
soon enter their health professions (such as
nursing, allied health) and may be required to
assist clients to find quality online health
information.
References
Chng C., Carlton A., & Toynes B. (2006). HIV on historically black
colleges and universities (HBCU): A study of five campuses in Texas,
Oklahoma, Louisiana. College Student Journal, 40, 25-34.
Schiavo R. (2008). Digital Marketing the rise of e-health: Current trends
and topics on online health communications. Journal of Medical
Marketing, 8, 9-18.
St. Rose M., Fuller, M K., & Jones, R C. (2008). An alternative HIV
prevention approach for African American college students. A
preliminary investigation. Journal of the National Society of Allied
Health, 5, 79-85.
Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Kinney, L., Masi, C M., Cassey, M Z., & Muhammad,
B. (2005). A participatory internet initiative in an African American
Neighborhood. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the
Community, 29, 103-116.