Paper
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Methodological Challenges to Tailoring Nursing Interventions for Immigrants
Julia Muennich Cowell, PhD, RN, FAAN, Diane B. McNaughton, PhD, RN, and Sarah H. Ailey, PhD, RN. College of Nursing, Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA
Challenges in intervention research with immigrants include maintaining scientific integrity while tailoring interventions to fit cultural preferences of specific immigrant populations. The purpose of this paper is to describe anticipated and unanticipated methodological challenges that arose, both for study participants and for the home health nurses delivering the interventions in a study to promote mental health in Mexican immigrant women and their fourth and fifth grade children. The intervention was a 20 week program that included training in problem-solving. During the design phase of the intervention, study participants expressed a strong preference for professionals rather than ethnic peers to deliver the interventions. Yet, professionally delivered interventions by home health nurses were a challenge due to Mexican immigrant women's mistrust of researchers, unfamiliarity with prevention research, and interest in portraying a positive image. Retaining study participants for the 20-week intervention required attending to Mexican cultural values of respect, a time orientation focused on the present, commitment to the ethnic community, and valuing interpersonal relationships. Unanticipated issues among the home health nurse interventionists on the research team included increased time demands for cultural sensitivity and frustration over missed appointments. Turn-over in home health nurses was another challenge. Strategies for retaining and collecting data from Mexican immigrant women and their children as well as educating, training, and supporting the home health nurses will be discussed. Other symposium presenters will discuss how similar challenges were addressed in their research studies with former Soviet and Arab immigrants.