Diversity and Inclusion in Health-Assistive and Technology Research Including Adoption

 

Executive Summary

Dr.  Connie Nguyen-Truong and Dr. Roschelle Fritz is a team of Principal Investigators and led an academic and community-engaged research in partnership with an Asian-based, culturally diverse health and social services health center, and community consultants from the Asian/Pacific community. A contribution is the inclusion of community partners’ perspective on how to engage older Asian immigrant adults in smart home research. Dr. Nguyen-Truong is one of the first people to develop a modified qualitative participatory driven methodology for use in 4 major Asian languages: Chinese Cantonese and Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Korean. Described culturally diverse perceptions of older Asian immigrants regarding smart home adoption for individuals living with chronic illnesses. Substantive evidence was provided that although older Asian immigrants wanted a smart home, they wanted features and functionality to work as intended or distrust in the technology will occur, wanted an alert for a nurse to come for emergencies and concerns about delayed response, to not bring harm due to crime, and to stay connected with family, friends, or a cultural health center as a collective culture. These may facilitate aging-in-place as families are grappling with how to care for their older loved ones and the need for culturally safe care. Dr. Nguyen-Truong is one of the first people to also design a culturally-diverse health-technology research engagement and education curriculum (I-COREE). Foundational evidence was provided that helped to bridge critical conversations about community partners’ fears of the unknown regarding smart home research, and advanced understanding that several older Asian immigrants have experienced physical and mental torture in the homeland due to being war captives and being monitored during imprisonment.

Publications

Note: †Faculty colleagues, *graduate students, ^undergraduate students, **WSU alumni, +community leaders

¹Nguyen-Truong, C. K. Y., & ^1,†Fritz, R. L. (2018). Health-assistive smart homes for aging in place: Leading the way for integration of the Asian immigrant minority voice. Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal, 3(4), 154-159. doi: 10.31372/20180304.1087. https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/apin/vol3/iss4/4/  PMID: 31037263 [¹Co-first authors] [Special Issue Technology and Health]

Provided important evidence that using a community-engaged research approach promoted community empowerment and cultural community leaders perceived “relationships are important” and that the honor of gaining entrée is based on trust due to a genuine motivation to have “meaningful impact on the Asian immigrant community” for sustainability. This advances understanding on the importance of shared cultural and research language, including honoring a history of deep rooted traumatic struggles and community grassroots efforts in promoting the health of the diverse Asian immigrant community. Dr. Nguyen-Truong directed the study of engagement of cultural community leaders and designed and wrote the methods and most of the culturally specific content. Dr. Fritz wrote most of the health-assistive smart home monitoring specific content. 

 

¹Nguyen-Truong, C. K. Y., ^1,†Fritz, R. L., †Lee, J., +Lau, C., +Le, C., +Kim, J., +Leung, H., **Nguyen, T. H., *+Leung, J., +Le, T. V., +Truong, A. M., †Postma, J., †Hoeksel, R., & †Van Son, C. (2018). Interactive co-learning for research engagement and education (I-COREE) curriculum to build capacity between community partners and academic researchers. Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal, 3(4), 126-138. doi: 10.31372/20180304.1030. https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/apin/vol3/iss4/2/  PMID: 31037261 [¹Co-first authors] [Special Issue Technology and Health]

Provided foundational evidence that the half day intensive I-COREE curriculum consisting of experiential, multimodal co-learning activities helped to bridge critical conversations about cultural community partners’ fears of the unknown regarding health-assistive smart home monitoring technology research, approaching culturally sensitive topics safely, and trust and rapport. Dr. Nguyen-Truong directed the study and is one of the first people to design a culturally-diverse health-technology research engagement and education curriculum and wrote the methods and the culturally specific content. Dr. Fritz wrote most of the health-assistive smart home monitoring specific content. 

 

¹Nguyen-Truong, C. K. Y., ¹Fritz, R. L., +Leung, J., †Lee, J., +Lau, C., +Le, C., +Kim, J., +Wong, K., **Nguyen, T. H., *+Le, T. V., *^,^Nevers, J. I., & +Truong, A. M. (2020). Older Asian immigrants’ perceptions of a health-assistive smart home. Gerontechnology, 19(4), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2020.19.04.385 [¹Co-first authors].

This is the first study to describe culturally diverse perceptions of older Asian immigrants regarding health-assistive smart home monitoring adoption for individuals living with chronic illnesses where we used my new modified qualitative participatory driven methodology for four major language: Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Korean. Provided substantive evidence that although older Asian immigrants wanted a smart home, they wanted features and functionality to work as intended or distrust will occur, to alert a nurse to come for emergencies, to not bring harm due to crime, and to stay connected with family, friends, or a cultural health center as a collective culture. Dr. Nguyen-Truong directed the study and wrote the methods and most of the culturally specific content. Dr. Fritz wrote most of the health-assistive smart home monitoring specific content. 

 

Nguyen-Truong, C. K. Y., *Closner, M., & †Fritz, R. L. (2019). Culturally safe didactic dialogue circles: Student and cultural community leader engagement. Journal of Nursing Education, 58(4), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20190321-15  PMID: 30943306

Successful in implementing a 5-step culturally safe didactic dialogue circles across graduate and undergraduate courses, including PhD, DNP, MN, RN-BSN, where I adapted from the K-12 educational system and led as a new development in the College of Nursing. Important outcomes point to qual­ity communications between students and cultural community leaders regarding difficult and painful topics such as being immigrants, his­torical trauma including war and physical and mental torture, and having to build new lives; and roles.