Dataset Information

COVID-19 Education for Health Professionals Caring for Spanish-Speaking Patients.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Hispanics in the United States, who make up 18% of US inhabitants but 29% of COVID-19 cases as of June 2021. Recent studies have attributed higher COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death rates among Hispanics to social determinants of health. Given that the majority of US Hispanics are bilingual or Spanish-dominant, it is imperative for health care providers to be prepared to discuss COVID-19 prevention and treatment in Spanish.

Methods

We developed an interactive workshop aimed at increasing health professionals' confidence in discussing COVID-19 prevention, risk factors, and treatments with Spanish-speaking patients. Learners were expected to have an intermediate level or higher proficiency in medical Spanish. The workshop consisted of a PowerPoint presentation and English/Spanish scripts to facilitate interactive learning. The workshop was evaluated using a postworkshop questionnaire to assess learners' perceived confidence in communicating with Spanish-speaking patients.

Results

The workshop was implemented with 70 participants, who had diverse ethnoracial identities and professional roles, at five different medical schools. Fifty-three participants completed the postworkshop questionnaire. More than 50% reported near complete to complete confidence in meeting the three learning objectives.

Discussion

With Hispanics being the largest non-White ethnoracial group in the US and being disproportionally affected by COVID-19, it is essential for health professionals to access training tools that allow them to practice medical Spanish. This module can uniquely aid in the preparation of health professionals caring for Spanish-speaking patients who present with COVID-19 symptoms.

SUBMITTER: Almanzar A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9001760 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

COVID-19 Education for Health Professionals Caring for Spanish-Speaking Patients.

Almanzar Anibelky A Martinez Derek D Vega Edgar E Lopez Miguel M Hodes-Villamar Linda L Sánchez John Paul JP

MedEdPORTAL : the journal of teaching and learning resources 20220412

<h4>Introduction</h4>The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Hispanics in the United States, who make up 18% of US inhabitants but 29% of COVID-19 cases as of June 2021. Recent studies have attributed higher COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death rates among Hispanics to social determinants of health. Given that the majority of US Hispanics are bilingual or Spanish-dominant, it is imperative for health care providers to be prepared to discuss COVID-19 prevention and treatme ...[more]

PMID: 35497679

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Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected the response capacity of the health care workforce, and health care professionals have been experiencing acute stress reactions since the beginning of the pandemic. In Spain, the first wave was particularly severe among the population and health care professionals, many of whom were infected. These professionals required initial psychological supports that were gradual and in line with their conditions.ObjectiveIn the early days of the pandemic in Spain (March 2020), this study aimed to design and validate a scale to measure acute stress experienced by the health care workforce during the care of patients with COVID-19: the Self-applied Acute Stress Scale (EASE).MethodsItem development, scale development, and scale evaluation were considered. Qualitative research was conducted to produce the initial pool of items, assure their legibility, and assess the validity of the content. Internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach α and McDonald ω. Confirmatory factor analysis and the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test were used to assess construct validity. Linear regression was applied to assess criterion validity. Back-translation methodology was used to translate the scale into Portuguese and English.ResultsA total of 228 health professionals from the Spanish public health system responded to the 10 items of the EASE scale. Internal consistency was .87 (McDonald ω). Goodness-of-fit indices confirmed a two-factor structure, explaining 55% of the variance. As expected, the highest level of stress was found among professionals working in health services where a higher number of deaths from COVID-19 occurred (P<.05).ConclusionsThe EASE scale was shown to have adequate metric properties regarding consistency and construct validity. The EASE scale could be used to determine the levels of acute stress among the health care workforce in order to give them proportional support according to their needs during emergency conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent need to rapidly disseminate health information, especially to those with cancer, because they face higher morbidity and mortality rates. At the same time, the pandemic's disproportionate impact on Latinx populations underscores the need for information to reach Spanish speakers. However, the equity of COVID-19 information communicated through institutions' online media to Spanish-speaking cancer patients is unknown.ObjectiveWe conducted a multimodal, mixed method document review study to evaluate the equity of online information about COVID-19 and cancer available to English- and Spanish-speaking populations from seven health care institutions in North Texas, where one in five adults is Spanish-speaking. Our focus was less on the "digital divide," which conveys disparities in access to computers and the internet based on the race/ethnicity, education, and income of at-risk populations; rather, our study asks the following question: to what extent is online content useful and culturally appropriate in meeting Spanish speakers' information needs?MethodsWe reviewed 50 websites (33 English and 17 Spanish) over a period of 1 week in the middle of May 2020. We sampled seven institutions' main oncology and COVID web pages, and both internal (institutional) and external (noninstitutional) linked content. We conducted several analyses for each sampled page, including (1) thematic content analysis, (2) literacy level analysis using Readability Studio software, (3) coding using the Patient Education and Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), and (4) descriptive analysis of video and diversity content.ResultsThe themes most frequently addressed on English and Spanish websites differed. While "resources/FAQs" were frequently cited themes on both websites, English websites more frequently addressed "news/updates" and "cancer+COVID," and Spanish websites addressed "protection" and "COVID data." Spanish websites had on average a lower literacy level (11th grade) than English websites (13th grade), although still far above the recommended guideline of 6th to 8th grade. The PEMAT's overall average accessibility score was the same for English (n=33 pages) and Spanish pages (n=17 pages) at 82%. Among the Dallas-Fort Worth organizations, the average accessibility of Spanish pages (n=7) was slightly lower than that of English pages (n=19) (77% vs 81%), due mostly to the discrepancy in English-only videos and visual aids. Of the 50 websites, 12 (24%) had embedded videos; however, 100% of videos were in English, including one on a Spanish website.ConclusionsWe identified an uneven response among the seven health care institutions for providing equitable information to Spanish-speaking Dallas-Fort Worth residents concerned about COVID and cancer. Spanish speakers lack equal access in both diversity of content about COVID-19 and access to other websites, leaving an already vulnerable cancer patient population at greater risk. We recommend several specific actions to enhance content and navigability for Spanish speakers.

Dataset Information

COVID-19 Education for Health Professionals Caring for Spanish-Speaking Patients.

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

Publications

COVID-19 Education for Health Professionals Caring for Spanish-Speaking Patients.

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