Effective Educational Strategies Combining Emerging Genetic Science and Native American Cultural Issues

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe how new topics in genetic science are implemented and evaluated within Genetic Education for Native Americans (GENA®) workshops. These workshops are typically implemented during professional conferences, training programs, Native American meetings and at tribal colleges. As genetic science evolves, public health educators are more and more likely to need to understand increasingly complex components within genetic research. These research discoveries are likely to impact cardiovascular health, cancer treatments, prevention and control of diabetes. The public and patients want to understand health information that affects them personally, as well as their communities. The focus of this paper is on GENA® objective 14 (emerging genetic science: microRNA), but the three 2006 3-hour workshops also addressed excerpts of GENA® objectives 5 and 29. at three meetings: the 2006 summer and fall Disparities Training Programs held in Houston, Texas and the 2006 Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS) conference (October, Tampa, Florida). The emphasis on objective 14 is because it was updated during spring 2006 (initial focus was on stem cell research) and selected components of objectives 5 and 20 have been published elsewhere. The paper briefly describes the content, interactive learning opportunity and the evaluation from the three 2006 workshops. The overall findings verify the effectiveness (p value of less than .01) of GENA® to significantly increase knowledge level of workshop participants about emerging genetic science breakthroughs.