Introducing a Community Health Worker in Southeast Idaho 

Hispanics are a large and growing population in southeast Idaho, but they are severely underserved. Most avoid healthcare facilities due to linguistic, financial, and cultural barriers. Consequently, the Latinx community does not have access to quality health information. Doctors, nurses, and specialists have a responsibility to provide correct data to the public. Their time is extremely limited however—especially in rural communities—due to healthcare professional shortages. Community Health Workers (CHW) have been emerging as an innovative occupation to empower individuals with timely medical knowledge. “The doctor can sit there and talk to you for 15 minutes,” explained one local healthcare administrator, “but I’ve got a Community Health Worker who can go out and talk to you for an hour.” This project will recruit and train health professional as a part-time CHW. This individual will interact with southeast Idaho Hispanics and supply them with educational resources available through the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM).