Partners in health: Improving water resources in rural Nicaragua

Background: Health inequities exist in rural Nicaragua. The purpose of this academic-community partnership is to improve health equity in rural Nicaragua through social transformation using community-based participatory action research. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development, school health, and primary health care theories provided the framework for this research.

Methods: Community-based participatory action research involves six phases: partnership, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. In the partnership phase, the goal was to develop a public health nursing and engineering academic research team and to strengthen an established partnership between academic researchers and community partners through community-based participatory action research. Researchers engaged established community partners in capacity building, developed new partners in the community, and completed six key informant interviews with new and established community partners. An assessment tool adapted from Engineers without Borders guided face-to-face, key informant interviews.

Results: Using the ecological framework, established community partners recruited community health leaders and water committee members to join the team. Both the established team members and new partners participated in key informant interviews. The key informant interviews revealed the need for improved water supply to one sector of the community as well as the need for potable water in the community at large.

Conclusions: Results from the partnership phase will be used to guide a comprehensive community health assessment related to the need for a sustainable, potable water supply. Partnership in community health research provides a mechanism to engage community members in social justice by working toward a common goal—health for all.