[Nurse hygienist, a role in everyone's interest]. / Infirmière hygiéniste, une fonction au service de tous.

Pascale Auguste has been working as a nurse hygienist for four years. Her managerial and pedagogical skills, specialised and up-to-date knowledge and human qualities enable her to work efficiently with the nursing teams. The diversity of the missions which she carries out makes her practice in hospital hygiene, not only complex but also very interesting.

Contextualizing the survivorship experiences of Haitian immigrant women with breast cancer: opportunities for health promotion.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine challenges faced by Haitian immigrant women managing a breast cancer diagnosis. RESEARCH APPROACH: Trained community health workers conducted focus groups with Haitian women who were breast cancer survivors. A grounded theory approach guided analysis of transcripts. SETTING: A large community-based organization in Miami, FL. PARTICIPANTS: 18 women took part in three focus groups. Participants were 40 years or older, were ethnically Haitian, and had been diagnosed with breast cancer 6-12 months prior to the study. METHODOLOGIC APPROACH: Data were collected as part of an ongoing community-based participatory research initiative in Little Haiti, the largest enclave of Haitian settlement in Miami, FL. Community health workers, integral to the initiative, recruited participants through their extensive social networks and community contacts. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Screening knowledge, illness beliefs, social and economic consequences of a breast cancer diagnosis, and advice for breast health education. FINDINGS: Emergent themes suggest that Haitian breast cancer survivors face multiple challenges, including misperceptions about screening guidelines, disease etiology, and risk; a reduced capacity to earn a living because of physical debility; and diminished social support. CONCLUSIONS: Future research must continue to examine the impact of breast cancer on Haitian immigrant women and identify key strategies, such as community outreach and support programs, to improve their quality of life. INTERPRETATION: Nurses can play an essential role in such strategies by providing culturally relevant clinical care and partnering with community stakeholders to define the scope and focus of public health intervention.

Barriers to breast cancer screening among Haitian immigrant women in Little Haiti, Miami.

Previous research has not examined barriers to mammography screening among Haitian immigrant women through their own discourse. Community Health Workers conducted in-depth interviews with Haitian women in Little Haiti, Miami. We used a grounded theory approach to analyze data from the in-depth interviews. Emergent themes coalesced into three core categories of screening barriers: Structural, Psychosocial, and Socio-Cultural. We developed a model of screening barriers to depict the themes within each core category. Screening barriers must be examined and understood from the social contexts in which they are produced in order to create meaningful interventions.

Assessing the acceptability of self-sampling for HPV among Haitian immigrant women: CBPR in action.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether pairing self-sampling for HPV with community health workers (CHWs) is a culturally acceptable method for cervical cancer screening among Haitian immigrant women residing in Little Haiti, the predominately Haitian neighborhood in Miami, FL. METHODS: As part of a larger, ongoing community-based participatory research (CBPR) initiative in Little Haiti, Haitian CHWs recruited 246 eligible women to this study. Participants provided self-collected cervical specimens for HPV testing and answered a series of questions about their experience with self-sampling for HPV. RESULTS: The vast majority of women (97.6%) was comfortable using the self-sampler at home, would recommend this screening method to their friends and/or family members (98.4%), and described the sampler as easy to use (95.1%). Additionally, 97% of all self-collected specimens were deemed adequate for HPV testing. CONCLUSIONS: When paired with CHWs, who are of Haitian descent and well respected in Little Haiti, self-sampling is a highly acceptable method of cervical screening for Haitian women in this ethnic enclave. This approach addresses critical access barriers, including poverty, language difficulties, and sociocultural concerns about modesty, that may similarly affect Pap smear utilization among other immigrant or medically underserved population sub-groups. Coupled with generally positive reviews of the device, the low rate of insufficient specimens for testing suggests that this device is promising for use in non-clinical settings.

Patnè en Aksyon: addressing cancer disparities in Little Haiti through research and social action.

Haitian women living in Miami, Florida, experience an increased risk of developing and dying from cervical cancer compared with women in other racial/ethnic minority and immigrant groups in the area. In response to this disparity, academic investigators from a local university-based cancer center and community leaders from Little Haiti, the predominately Haitian neighborhood in Miami, created Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), a campus-community partnership. We describe the partnership's effort to document the prevalence of lifetime and routine Papanicolau test use using community-based participatory research methods. Community health workers indigenous to the area recruited participants from various community venues throughout Little Haiti and administered informal, brief interviews to assess their screening practices. The results indicate that Haitian women are underscreened and underscore the importance of community involvement in study implementation.

Community-based participatory research in Little Haiti: challenges and lessons learned.

BACKGROUND: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective methodology for developing relevant interventions with socially marginalized communities. However, implementing CBPR methods is challenging for several reasons. This paper presents challenges encountered in the context of an ongoing CBPR initiative in Little Haiti in Miami, Florida, and describes the solutions used to address them. OBJECTIVES: We sought to describe the challenges faced and lessons learned while conducting CBPR in Little Haiti. METHODS: Community-academic partnerships were created to guide the creation of culturally relevant cancer interventions and research. LESSONS LEARNED: Historical distrust of research, cultural constructions of health and illness, and literacy issues are key considerations when developing partnerships with Haitian and other marginalized, immigrant communities. CONCLUSIONS: Partnerships are fostered over time through demonstrated mutual commitment to improving health and building community capacity. Communities must play an active role throughout the research process to ensure that studies are culturally relevant, and ensuing intervention, sustainable.