Ethics Training for Community-Engaged Research in Latino Community
There is a surge in community-engaged research, but laypeople often lack human research ethics training. Patricia Documét, MD, DrPH, and colleagues recently provided such training to community health workers who were studying the effect of an intervention to promote healthy behaviors and expand healthcare access among Latinos.1
“We used pedagogical principles to make the training of community health workers (promotores, in Spanish) culturally appropriate. Of course, we translated it into Spanish,” says Documét, director of Latinx Research and Outreach at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Health Equity.
The group tailored the University of Pittsburgh Community Partner Research Ethics Training to Latino community members. Role-playing scenarios were used to illustrate how to ethically obtain informed consent, and also what it would look like to violate ethical principles. “Some situations came from our actual experience in prior projects,” Documét notes.
In one example, a promotore correctly offers to answer any questions the participant might ask. In addition, she wants to help the participant find a job — but in trying to do so, the promotore divulges some private information.
In another role-playing scenario, the promotore trying to secure the signed consent form pressures the participant to sign. “These were funny. When promotores were in character, everyone paid attention. The subsequent discussion was productive and entertaining,” Documét says.
Four months later, researchers surveyed eight community liaisons and 13 promotores about the training and held a focus group with eight promotores.
“We wanted to know how the promotores were doing, not only right after the training but also after a few months in the field,” Documét explains.
The surveyed promotores were confident in their ability to obtain informed consent. During the focus groups, promotores demonstrated the ability to apply ethical principles. For example, some talked about advertising broadly in social media as a way to apply the ethical principal of justice. Others discussed the risks and benefits of providing resources to participants as a way to apply the ethical principle of beneficence. “They had reflected on their training and had used the ethical principles to make decisions we had not anticipated,” Documét says.
For instance, researchers had given promotores some health and educational resources to share with community members. The promotores found local events that could be beneficial for this population, such as picnics or book readings for children in Spanish. Next, the promotores took time to consider the costs and benefits and to ensure the events were held by legitimate community organizations. “They said they did not want to accidentally suggest to participants that they attend a commercial event,” Documét says.
Based on the success of the training approach, Documét says IRBs should “strongly suggest using local flavor and humor in human research ethics trainings.”
The promotores even offered suggestions for the researchers to develop new role-playing scenarios. For example, they wanted to know how to react appropriately to people who were anxious or depressed. “They thought that a short scenario showing empathy could help, paired with some examples of what not to do,” Documét says.
The promotores even saw the training itself in terms of ethical principles. “They told us that, in their view, a thorough training was an expression of respect and beneficence,” Documét adds.
REFERENCE
- Documét PI, Louth W, Smith-Tapia I, et al. Pedagogic tailoring of a human research ethics training for community-engaged research with Latinos. Health Promot Pract 2022;23:98-108.
Researchers recently provided human research ethics training to community health workers who were studying the effect of an intervention to promote healthy behaviors and expand healthcare access among Latinos.
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