Teresa Paredes and Dr. Ana Birkhead, College of Nursing

The health care practices of Hispanic childbearing age women in Utah affect the overall health care system in Utah. We believe immigrant Hispanic women lack resources (i.e. education, cultural, transportation) to take care of their health and their families. My mentor and I believe the lack of these resources influence Hispanic women’s health status and access to adequate health care. It is crucial for immigrant Hispanic women in Utah to obtain culturally sensitive resources in their communities that will help them learn how to care for their own health and the well-being of their families.

As Hispanics in Utah, we believe there are essential resources needed to improve health care practices. Because the Hispanic culture is different from the American culture, we believe Hispanics have different beliefs and traditions in relation to health care practices. We believe that some of these cultural aspects could represent a barrier in the access to health care. One barrier might be for example language. We also believe Hispanic immigrant women might lack the education and/or financial resources to take care of their health.

For this project, I analyzed data from a larger qualitative study on Hispanic women’s health. The larger study consisted of 22 Hispanic women between the ages of 20 and 45 years old. The criteria for the study also included that the women were living in the US for no more than 3 years. The women were interviewed about their health care beliefs and practices. They were also asked to identify the resources they needed to improve their health. The women identified some of the barriers they have in access of health care. They also identified possible solutions. The interviews were conducted in Spanish or English according to the subject’s preference. The interviews were transcribed and then translated into English to be analyzed.

Our hypothesis was that Hispanic women in Utah had some barriers in the access of health care. The barriers we had hypothesized were language difference, lack of transportation, lack of education, and lack of financial resources. After extensive data analysis, I found that some of these barriers were true. However, the main barrier for Hispanic women in Utah in accessing health care was lack of education.

First, I found that 72% of women in this research identified lack of education as a barrier to access health care. The types of education the women identified as lacking included topics such as sexuality, nutrition and exercise. First, the women declared a need for education about women’s health exams such as pap smears and mammograms. They expressed a need for education about birth control methods and perinatal education (pregnancy). It surprised me to find that some of these immigrant Hispanic women in Utah lack basic education about women’s health. For example, they lack education about human physiology, safe sexual practices and use of birth control. Second, the women stated a need for education about nutrition. They identified having a good nutrition as a very important factor in a person’s health and they wanted to know how to follow a healthy diet. Third, these women stated that exercise is important and wanted to know how to implement an exercise program. Other topics requested for education included medication use, side effects and contraindications.

Another finding in the study was that 36 % of women stated a need for health care providers that are “happier, friendlier, more culturally sensitive, more helpful, and more specialized”. Also, 45% of women preferred to receive care in their own language. These findings were a very important factor in the access of health care. If a Hispanic woman did not feel helped in the first visit, she was less likely to comply with her treatment and to come back for a follow up visit.

The women interviewed also communicated a need for more clinics. They said there are not enough clinics near their communities. Consequently, because of the large number of patients being seen, they have to wait a long time before being seen. A lot of these Hispanic women work to help their families financially, so they also commented that it would be helpful if the clinics had flexible schedules including weekends and evenings.

The women suggested various outreach methods for their Hispanic communities. They said the education could be implemented via television, internet and health fairs. They also mentioned that education materials should be printed and given to patients during their visit to the doctor. The content of these pamphlets should be written in simple terms that are easy to understand and in Spanish. They said it would be helpful to have somebody explain to them the information, perhaps by having some health education classes. They women also mentioned that pictures and videos are more helpful to their community, because some Hispanic women do not know how to read or write.

The women were very open to answering questions about their health practices. They were excited about expressing their ideas hoping to collaborate in improving the health of Hispanic women in Utah. I found some implications for further research. In this study, I learned about resources that Hispanic women need. However, I think further research will be needed to find out how to relocate resources to help the immigrant Hispanic community. Further research is also needed to find out how to eliminate some of the barriers that prevent Hispanic women from accessing quality health care.

I am graduating from the nursing program this December and I am excited to implement some of these findings in my future practice as a nurse. I am also excited to continue to help Hispanic women in Utah obtain a better health education, so they can teach their families as well.