A successful guide in understanding Latino immigrant patients: An aid for health care professionals serving the Latino population

Birmingham, Alabama is ranked 6th among cities in the U.S. with the fastest growing Latino population. Approximately 80% of Latino immigrants in Birmingham do not have a regular place to go for healthcare. In order to facilitate healthcare access for Latino immigrants, a NCI funded community-based educational program (Sowing the Seeds of Health) created an informative DVD to aid health care providers in Alabama better understand Latino immigrant health beliefs and health care seeking behaviors. The educational DVD presents information on how to provide culturally competent care as it relates to Latinos, expectations of Latino patients seeking care and common cultural belief and practice of Latino immigrants. Health care professionals and Latino immigrants from the community participated in the development of the script and DVD. The dissemination strategy was to reach health care providers via on-site sessions, online, hard copies mailed by request, and a national webcast. The webcast was conducted live via satellite in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Public Health. In the four avenues of distribution, 378 participants have been reached. Twenty-six (26) states were represented nationwide and of those represented, 20.5% were from Alabama. 31.4% of participants were nurses, 7.9% were physicians. Among the rest were social workers, students, and educators. Overall knowledge increased significantly (p-value <0.005) in almost all of the categories measured. The findings indicate that the DVD is a successful avenue for educating health care professionals in their efforts to better understand and serve the Latino immigrant population.