Promotores and Community Health Workers: Protecting Communities Against Infectious Disease

ISSUE: Promotores are community leaders who live in colonias (unincorporated developments without public services) and act as the liaisons between residents and health and human services. Promotores are an important link to early recognition of the symptoms of infectious diseases and other health threats. PROJECT: The School of Rural Public Health at Texas A&M Health Science Center, working with its partners, developed and presented a five-hour workshop in English and Spanish entitled “Promotores and Community Health Workers: Protecting Communities against Infectious Disease.” The training was designed to provide tools to assist health workers identify, track, prevent and report the spread of infections. Diverse teaching methodologies were used to address the specific learning objectives of each session: lecture, powerpoint, demonstration and group activities. The training objectives were evaluated by a number of qualitative and quantitative measures, including the number of participants per site, change in scores between pre- and post-test, participation in case studies, and a process evaluation. RESULTS: Five workshops were delivered during July 2005 to four sites along the Texas-Mexico border: El Paso, Laredo, Weslaco and Brownsville. A total of 170 Promotores and Community Health Workers registered for the training. Analysis of evaluation data indicated an overall increase in knowledge and skills of 14.6%. Process evaluation data showed satisfaction with the training content and methodology. LESSONS LEARNED: Building relationships with key people on site prior to the training were critical to the projectʹs success. Ascertaining audience expectations for the training during the first few minutes of the workshop allowed facilitators to adapt delivery to accommodate specific site needs. Providing training materials in English and Spanish was necessary to ensure content understanding. The “tag-team” process that developed between the English and Spanish facilitator helped ensure and reinforce understanding of content. More time needs to be allotted for case studies and post-test. Reading aloud the pre- and post-test made a statistical difference in participant performance.