Providing culturally responsible health care to Pacific Islander communities: The creation of a cultural competency training for healthcare professionals

Cultural competency is the ability to respectfully engage, understand, and communicate through conscientious interaction, enabling effective work and meaningful relationships in cross-cultural situations. Cultural competency recognizes the importance for organizations of participants' diverse social and cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors, and has gained attention because it can bridge health perspectives, understanding, and respect between health professionals and patients. There remains a need for cultural competency in healthcare as disparities persist across the U.S. in racial and ethnic minority groups who experience worse health outcomes and lower healthcare quality than the general public. Therefore, a cultural competency training curriculum was created using various resources to improve interactions between Pacific Islander patients and healthcare professionals. This training helps to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in healthcare by encouraging mutual understanding and improving patient satisfaction, adherence to medical instructions, and overall health outcomes by highlighting patient-centered care as a result of utilizing components of cultural competency. To improve patient experiences in Hawai'i, healthcare professionals need the tools to better interact with patients from different cultures, such as Pacific Islanders. This training provides healthcare professionals with culturally-based content for improving cultural competence techniques for interacting with Pacific Island patients. This training was pilot tested with key stakeholders from community organizations and Cancer Center faculty/staff. Local health clinics, providers, and practices will have the opportunity to participate in this training through a Zoombased electronic training format and be provided with three continuing medical education credits. The initial delivery of the training was intended for in-person sessions;however, a virtual format was adapted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social distancing regulations. Healthcare providers are provided pre-training resources, a pre- and post-test, and a course evaluation to determine the validity of training objectives. To date, two Federally Qualified Health Centers have been provided the training, n=60, as well as one Cancer Health Equity Partnerships' Scientific Workshop, n=40. For attendees, the analysis of correct responses from the pretest to post-test showed a significant improvement on 6 of the 12 questions. Respondents also agreed that the training resources aligned with the course objectives. Improved patient interactions from this training can help support better patient outcomes, adherence to medical advice regarding cancer screenings, and many other aspects of improving health equity for Pacific Islanders.

Exploring the Impact of Education Strategies on Individuals' Attitude Towards Telemental Health Service: Findings from a Survey Experiment Study.

While COVID-19 has caused significant mental health consequences, telemental health services have the potential to mitigate this problem. But due to the sensitive nature of mental health issues, such services are seriously underutilized. Based on an integrated variance-process theoretical framework, this study examines the impact of applying different education strategies on individuals' attitude toward telemental health and subsequently their intention to adopt telemental health. Two different education videos on telemental health (peer- or professional-narrated) were developed based on social identity theory. A survey experiment study was conducted at a major historically black university, with 282 student participants randomly assigned to the two education videos. Individual perceptions of the telemental health service (usefulness, ease of use, subjective norms, relative advantage, trust, and stigma) and their attitude and usage intention data were collected. The results show that ease of use, subjective norms, trust, relative advantage, and stigma significantly influence individuals' attitude toward telemental health in the peer-narrated video group. Only trust and relative advantage were found to be significant factors toward attitude in the professional-narrated video group. This study highlights the importance of designing education strategies and builds a theoretical foundation for understanding the nuanced differences in individuals' responsiveness to different educational materials.

Chronic disease care during the covid-19 pandemic. An analysis of the narratives of public hospital workers in the Buenos Aires suburbs (Argentina)

Objective: To analyze the narratives of those who work in public hospitals in the Buenos Aires suburbs, about their experiences in the care and care of people living with a chronic non-communicable disease, focusing on the difficulties and obstacles that emerge in the context of covid-19 pandemic. Methodology: 13 in-depth interviews were conducted during the months of May and August 2021, using a script of questions/topics and virtually. In the analysis, we started from the narrative approach to reconstruct the way in which the actors produce, represent and contextualize their experiences. Results: On the one hand, temporary obstacles were defined, such as the fear of people with this type of disease to go out and go to a hospital, the closure of outpatient clinics and the concentration of workers and workers, and resources for the care of the covid-19 pandemic;on the other, structural problems —promoted by the epidemic—, such as the intermittent availability of medication, the difficulties of articulating with other institutions/levels of care, the access or not of patients to public transport and their possibility or not of paying for other transport. Conclusion: During the pandemic, the work was focused, both materially and symbolically, on the containment of covid-19 cases. Follow-up, diagnosis and care of chronic non-communicable diseases were postponed. The current challenge is to attend to the new socioepidemiological reality that is configured when the sars-Cov-2 virus decreases its circulation and severity. Copyright © The Trustees of Indiana University.

Investigating the Impact of Covid-19 on Telepsychiatry Use Across Sex and Race: A Study of North Carolina Emergency Departments.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and the intervention measures have increased mental health problems among Americans. Telepsychiatry provides a safe and efficient way to serve mental health patients in emergency departments (EDs). The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on telepsychiatry consultations in North Carolina (NC) and analyze the differences across sex and race. Methods: This longitudinal observational study used data from the NC Statewide Telepsychiatry Program to examine temporal changes in ED telepsychiatry consultations from January 2019 to March 2021 (117 weeks), including 4,739 telepsychiatry consultations conducted by 27 hospitals in 24 counties in NC during the period. The outcome measures were telepsychiatry consultation counts. Weekly ED telepsychiatry consultation counts were calculated overall and stratified by sex and race. Results: The overall weekly ED telepsychiatry consultation counts were decreasing before the national lockdown but started increase after the lockdown. Moreover, the counts of telepsychiatry consultations for white patients had a stronger increasing trend than that for black patients. Comparing telepsychiatry counts during the lockdown period (March and April) in 2020 and the same period in 2019, male patients had higher counts while female patients had lower counts, and white patients had higher counts while black patients had lower counts. Discussion: It seems that the COVID-19 crisis has led to a heightening demand for telepsychiatry consultations in NC, and there is a possible race disparity in these demands between black and white mental health patients. These findings underscore the need to further develop telepsychiatry services and enhance access to black patients.

Study of Impact of Telehealth Use on Clinic "No Show" Rates at an Academic Practice.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the clinic no-show rate across different modalities of care delivery (Face to Face, Telephone visits and Audio-Video visits). METHODS: Clinic no show data for adult patients was extracted from the electronic health records used by the psychiatry clinic for 10 months before pandemic and 10 months during pandemic. No show rate was analyzed by visits type (new vs return) and across different modalities (face-to-face vs Telephone vs Audio-Video) before and during COVID pandemic. RESULTS: There were 13,916 scheduled visits during the 10-month period before the pandemic of which 2,522 were no show. There were 13,251 scheduled visits during the 10-month period during the COVID pandemic of which 2,029 were no show. The overall clinic no show rate decreased from pre pandemic to pandemic period (18.1% vs 15.3%) after transitioning to telehealth. Across different modalities during the pandemic, the no-show rate for Telephone visits was significantly lower than for face- to-face visits. No difference was identified for no-show rates between face-to-face visits and audio-video visits during the pandemic. The no-show rate for face-to-face visits before the pandemic compared to during the pandemic also showed no difference. CONCLUSION: Using technology in health care delivery can decrease the clinic no show rate. Digital literacy for patients and providers is critical for successful utilization of telehealth.

EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED: DEALING WITH COVID-19 PANDEMICS INTO PUBLIC HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONS

This article is based on the accounts of public healthcare workers' experiences since the declaration of a public health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective is to analyze the transformations that occurred in their daily work during the pandemic and identify the main challenges and problems to be addressed through public policies. Methods: a qualitative research study was carried out to 41 public health workers, interviewed by WhatsApp audio telephone. Results and conclusions: the informants highlight a total transformation in the forms of care and in their work in particular. The primary tensions that emerge: a) the spaces where work takes place that in this context acquire new sense and meaning;b) the times for work and leisure;and c) the new roles and activities the workers have had to learn and to which they have had to adapt. We highlight these dimensions as crucial to supporting healthcare teams in the transition toward a new reality of public health in Argentina.

External laryngeal trauma: our experience over 10 years in Dakar (Senegal)

Introduction: External laryngeal trauma represents a rare medical and surgical emergency. Examination of the endolarynx as well as CT are very important for the assessment of the lesions. The surgical treatment aims to restore the permeability of the laryngeal pathway and to avoid complications. The objective of the study is to share our experience on the epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of these external laryngeal traumas. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study of 34 cases of patients with external laryngeal trauma. The study period runs from September 2009 to November 2018 (10 years).