Providing Culturally Competent Services at COVID-19 Vaccine Sites

                                                                                                                                            January: 2.5 hours 

For January’s volunteer work, I decided to join NOLA Ready who partnered with Dr. Alicia Battle, and hosted a cultural competency training for COVID-19 vaccine site volunteers.  This training was designed to provide participants with skills to interact effectively with people from different backgrounds and cultures. The training helped increase us participants (volunteers and citizens of New Orleans) awareness of cultural competence, encourage behavior change, and improve communication skills. This cultural humility training took place via Zoom, where we learned the process of knowledge, awareness and respect for other cultures. This was a very interactive zoom session, full of people from all backgrounds and ages. We touched on topics concerning cultural destructiveness, cultural incapacity, cultural blindness, cultural competence and cultural proficiency. I must commend Dr. Alicia Battle for successfully leading this discussion, as it was a lot of tough topics combined into one session, with many people.  There is no way to “ease” into a conversation with strangers on a screen about racism, stereotyping, and what it means to be privileged, but this meeting was full of people who wanted to be there, and it showed. Cultural humility can be described as “The process in which the healthcare professional continually strives to achieve the ability and availability to effectively work within the cultural context of a client.” As we learned throughout this session, cultural humility occurs when an individual or organization has the ability to function effectively within the context o beliefs and behaviors, as well as the needs of the patient or the community that they serve. The session was to educate the volunteers of greater New Orleans with skills they may need for helping the community with the Covid-19 vaccine. Whether this be a greeting table, check-in service, handing out snacks and water, or administering the vaccine, it is important to be reminded that we are in the middle of a pandemic and we must be culturally aware and conscientious of those we are helping, those ultimately in need, and what their needs may be in these trying times whilst delivering the vaccine. Cultural considerations in health promotion affects the perceptions of health and illness, the beliefs about how/why illness occurs, health behaviors, and how symptoms are described/how concerns are expressed. These all ultimately lead to how treatment is pursued and followed. Communication is the foundation for effective volunteer service, as well as demographic factors, literacy levels, and other relevant factors that need to be considered when volunteering at a Covid-19 vaccine site. Volunteers must consider the audience(s) that they are serving. Being equity-minded as a volunteer means that one must be collaborative, deliberate, inclusive, constructive, safe, and connected. The main goals of this virtual learning experience were to provide health promotion programming in a culturally sensitive, knowledgeable and non-judgmental manner, to challenge one’s own assumptions and ask the right questions, and to integrate different approaches. The main highlight of this conference was to recognize the culture(s) of the Black communities in New Orleans while providing programming in accordance with legal and ethical norms and medically sound public health practice. I enjoyed being a part of this interactive session, as it opened my eyes, and I learned many unexpected things of which I am now very grateful for.