Developing Sustainable Cancer Education Programs: Training Public Health Students to Deliver Cancer 101 in Puerto Rico

Abstract

The use of promotores to educate Hispanic communities about different health topics has been proven successful, albeit with limitations in program sustainability. The goal of this study was to develop a sustainable train-the-trainer model to train graduate public health (PH) students to disseminate cancer education among communities in Puerto Rico (PR). Graduate students (n = 32) from Ponce Health Sciences University's (PHSU) PH program participated in a 2-day Cáncer 101 training, where they learned how to deliver nine cancer modules to the community. Cancer knowledge was assessed before and after the training via 54 items measuring discussed concepts. Participants also assessed the training's effectiveness by completing a training evaluation informed by social cognitive theory (SCT) constructs of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, facilitation, and observational learning. Participants were mainly female (78.1 %), 26.7 ± 3.9 years old, and enrolled in a Masters-level program (81.3 %). Participants reported an average 11.38-point increase in cancer knowledge after attending the training [t(31) = 14.88, p < .001]. Participants also evaluated the training favorably upon completion, reporting satisfactory comments in the open-ended responses and high scores on measured SCT constructs. The Cáncer 101 training program effectively prepared students to deliver cancer education to local communities. Training graduate PH students to educate communities about health issues is an innovative, and potentially sustainable, way to reach underserved populations.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of community health worker training programs in Latinx communities: A scoping review

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Nivel de conocimiento del médico serums sobre el dominio académico, diagnóstico y técnico para la prevención temprana del cáncer de cuello uterino

“…La formación académica y capacitación de forma sostenible a los profesionales de la salud es un factor clave a considerar en la prevención de cáncer (34,35). El presente trabajo encontró que las habilidades académicas y diagnósticas son óptimas en la prevención y detección temprana del cáncer de cuello uterino, esto puede deberse que este cáncer es una de las principales causas de muertes en el Perú, existe difusión por medios de comunicación las medidas preventiva para el cáncer de cuello uterino, así mismo con frecuencia se pueden observar a los pacientes en los centros de salud, pero en estados avanzados del cáncer (20,36,37).…”

Accuracy of health‐related information regarding COVID‐19 on Twitter during a global pandemic

“…Prior studies found that internet and social media‐based medical information was frequently incorrect with 12%–40% of health‐related tweets described as untrustworthy or inaccurate (Albalawi et al 2019 ; Gage‐Bouchard et al, 2018 ; Kedzior et al, 2019 ; Love et al, 2013 ; Shah et al, 2019 ). Assuming an inaccuracy rate within this range, it was estimated that a sample size of at least 369 tweets would be needed to derive an overall accuracy with 95% confidence that was within 5% of these values.…”