Assignment: Culturally Competent Communication

There are many news items published every day that relate to infectious disease, including updates on infectious disease incidence and prevalence, newly emerging or resurging disease outbreaks, scientific breakthroughs, and research study findings. When communicating information about infectious disease, it is important to consider culture and the appropriate strategies for engaging and communicating with diverse populations. 

In this Assignment, you will a find a current news item on an infectious disease topic and prepare a paper describing the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health information about the risks associated with the infectious agent in the selected news item, and a strategy to communicate the risk of the infectious agent to a specific cultural group.

By Day 7 of Week 9

Submit your Assignment that includes the following:

Find a news item published in the last 30 days that interests you and that relates to the public health burden of infectious disease. Research the pathophysiology and epidemiology of the infectious disease and a population that may be disproportionally impacted by this disease. Prepare a 4 to 5 page paper that includes the following:

An APA style title page, including your name, date, course and section, and title

APA style headings for each section below

Describe the cause of the infectious disease that is in the news item you chose (identify the organism, route of infection, host or environment, person to person transmission, vectors, etc)

Describe the health risk from this infectious disease (morbidity, mortality, outcomes) and how it may be prevented

Describe the overall importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content. Support your answer

Choose a specific cultural group that may be disproportionally impacted by this disease and explain what you believe is the most effective way to communicate risk and prevention information related to the organism and provide examples

Describe how you would assure that your selected communication strategy is demonstrating appropriate cultural competence for this population

Cite the sources within your text in APA style

Include an APA formatted reference list at the end of your paper.

Note: The title page and References page do not count towards the papers page requirement.

Your Instructor uses the Module 5 Assignment Rubric to grade this Assignment.