Capstone Project Change Proposal Presentation for Faculty Review and Feedback

2

The Capstone Change Proposal for African Americans who are Adamant to the COVID-19 Vaccine

Christelle Pierre-Louis
Grand Canyon University- NRS-493

April 4, 2021

Introduction

The Capstone Change Proposal

There are high cases of African Americans population rejecting the Covid-19 vaccines. Given its disastrous impacts on the society, there is need to develop interventions that will culminate into many African Americans being vaccinated. The main motive of the paper is to establish what can be done to African American population to encourage them to take the Covid-19 vaccines. If the African American population is convinced to accept the Covd-19 vaccination, the prevalence of the pandemic will decrease in the American societies. A reduction in the Covid-19 cases will enable the American nation to reconstruct after a tumultuous period amid the pandemic.

PICOT Question

In African American population exposed to the risk of Covid-19 pandemic, how effective is pro-vaccine communication and study of the underlying health disparities to pre-vaccine communication?

Objectives and rationale

The first objective is to identify whether distributing pro-vaccine communication resources emphasizing personal health risks is more effective than communication, emphasizing the economic costs and collective consequences of rejecting the vaccine. Some Americans are known to be individualistic people, while others are known to be collectivistic. Individualistic people are more focused on achieving personal goals as long as they favor them. Collectivistic people focus on goals that favor the entire society. In the context of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, individualistic people would take the vaccine if they get assured of personal safety and better individual health outcomes. They will be motivated by their personal health wellness accompanied with the use of the Covid-19 vaccine. On the other hand, if these individuals assess the vaccine use and find out that the vaccine has negative health implications on their health, they will readily reject it.
On the other hand, collectivistic people would accept the vaccine if doing so would improve the health outcomes of the entire community. According to Sneed et al., (2020), most African American population lives in fear about the pandemic. Therefore, if the nursing fraternity proves to the population that the use of the vaccine will redeem their societies from the ensnaring danger of the pandemic, it is likely that most African Americans will accept the vaccination. The population is motivated by the wellness of the entire society. Economic-oriented people would likely take the vaccine if doing so would increase the economic prosperity of the nation. Collectivistic people and economic-oriented people have similar characteristics because all their motives are for the general good of many people in a society. Economic prosperity encompasses the entire society and just like the collectivists, economic-oriented people think of the society first.
The second objective is to determine how often people go for health screening to identify any underlying medical conditions and comorbidities that they may be living with. Such conditions include HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular illness, and other lung diseases. According to Lohia et al. (2021), the existence of other health risks can increase the severity of the COVID-19 symptoms when such patients are exposed to covid-19. The frequency of attending health facilities has great impacts on the heath of the people in a particular society. Those who regularly attend go to hospitals in case of any health complications have a deeper understanding of their health conditions compared to those who rarely visit hospitals. Therefore understanding the extent to which people go for screening to identify possible underlying health conditions would be essential in changing interventions. It would also be an opportunity to recognize the health disparities and economic barriers to health access among African Americans (Reed, 20200. A comprehension of the health disparities among the African Americans could lead to informed health interventions.
The third objective is to investigate why African Americans would refuse a vaccine despite the extreme health risks that COVID-19 presents to them. Various reasons can cause vaccine hesitancy among African Americans. Among the reasons include a history of unconsented medical trials, health disparities, a lack of proper health education, and affordability. Also, the accumulated disadvantages on part of African Americans could lead to refusal to take the vaccines. In terms of health determinants of health such as education and poverty prevalence rates, most African Americans are poor and with low education levels (Manes et al., 2020). Looking into such factors could explain the reason why many of them are reluctant for the vaccine. Moreover, there could be discriminatory policies governing the administration of the Covid-19 vaccines that scare away African Americans. Knowing the reasons can help healthcare providers to design appropriate interventions to increase vaccine acceptance to the population and thus, contribute to the overall success in the fight of Covid-19 pandemic.
In conclusion, the Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to bring down the entire US to its knees. With that pending risk, it is the duty of the nurses to develop the necessary intervention that shall solve the problem. As part of the interventions, the nursing fraternity should resort to pro-vaccine communication. Another step the nurses could take is studying how the underlying health disparity challenges could lead to Africans rejecting Covid-19 vaccination.

References
Maness, S. B., Merrell, L., Thompson, E. L., Griner, S. B., Kline, N., & Wheldon, C. (2020). Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities: COVID-19 Exposures and Mortality Among African American People in the United States. Public Health Reports, 136(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354920969169

Reed, D. (2020). Racial Disparities in Healthcare: How COVID-19 Ravaged One of the Wealthiest African American Counties in the United States. Social Work in Public Health, 36(2), 118–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2020.1868371

Lohia, P., Sreeram, K., Nguyen, P., Choudhary, A., Khicher, S., Yarandi, H., & Badr, M. S. (2021). Preexisting respiratory diseases and clinical outcomes in COVID-19: a multihospital cohort study on predominantly African American population. Respiratory Research, 22(1), 1-9.
Sneed, R. S., Key, K., Bailey, S., & Johnson-rence, V. (2020). Social and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in African-American communities: Lessons from Michigan. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(5), 446–448. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000881