What is culturally-respectful distance-delivered health education with and for Alaska Native people?

Alaska’s village-based healthcare providers - Community Health Aides and Practitioners (CHA/Ps) - requested cancer information for themselves and communities.  However, Alaska’s geographic and economic challenges limit the amount of in-person education available for CHA/Ps.  In response, a research team at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium received an award from the National Cancer Institute to create a culturally-respectful distance delivered cancer education course for Alaska’s CHA/Ps. 

APPROACH
A multi-faceted approach has been undertaken to understand what culturally-relevant distance-delivered education might look and feel like.  Ten health educators engaged in supporting Alaska Native community wellness participated in a two-hour focus group.  Three existing cancer education online learning modules created with, and for, Alaska’s CHA/Ps, were completed between March 2013 and December 2014 by 178 predominantly female (78%), Alaska Native/American Indian (76%), CHA/Ps (94%) who offered feedback.  Additional approaches include a review of published peer-reviewed literature, a CHA/P internet survey, and in-depth interviews with 10 Alaska Native stakeholders. 

RESULTS
Emerging themes for culturally-respectful distance-education have included: personal stories, relationships, traditional values, and being respectful of individual learners.  The focus group of healthcare educators shared that relationships, stories, laughter/humor, valuing the learners, and being attentive to emotions were culturally-respectful educational practices.  The majority of online learners felt the existing modules were culturally respectful (92%), with write-in comments sharing themes that culturally respectful aspects included stories and Alaska-specificity: “I really enjoyed the personal stories and aspect of other communities.”  Preliminary results of the literature review, CHA/P survey, and in-depth interviews will also be shared.