Holly Jill Herr, RN, School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, 1700 Red River, Austin, TX 78701, 512-481-0796, h.j.herr@juno.com and Crescencia Alvarado, Director, Promotoras de Vida y Salud, El Buen Samaritano, 7000 Woodhue, Austin, TX 78745.

Health care providers continue to face the challenge of addressing health disparities among ethnic minorities in the United States. One contributing factor to such disparities is the cultural gap often present between health care professionals and minority clients. Involvement of community health workers (CHW’s) representative of the client’s cultural background in the planning and implementation of the client’s plan of care are key to bridging this gap.

This presentation describes the strategy of pairing of Spanish-speaking CHW’s, or “promotoras,” with nurses and student-nurses to implement a health promotion program for children in an urban setting. Participants in this home-visit based intervention were monolingual Spanish-speaking mothers. The contribution of the CHW’s was critical in developing appropriate use of language for the program and in providing insight to cultural nuances relevant to the implementation of the program. Future programs will benefit from the evaluations provided by CHW’s of individual home visits and of the program model. The presence and leadership of the CHW’s during the home visits enhanced communication and trust, allowing for optimal understanding and interest in the subject matter discussed.

Cultural understanding and communication expertise brought by the CHW compliments the clinical expertise of health care professionals to promote culturally competent and equitable care for minorities. Development of health care teams optimally includes CHW participation from the planning stage through evaluation. The assets, possibilities and challenges of this model will be discussed both from the perspective of the CHW and the health care professional, as co-presented by the authors.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Describe at least one model of how to incorporate community health workers into the traditional system of health care delivery.
• Evaluate the strengths and challenges of providing health care services and programs utilizing this model.
• Apply how this model could be used to address the health needs in his or her community.

Keywords: Community Health Promoters, Cultural Competency

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.