Through the ongoing New Jersey Healthcare Essential Worker Outreach and Education Study - Testing Overlooked Occupations (NJ HEROES TOO), we have gained a wealth of data on COVID-19's effects, gleaned valuable learnings on attitudes toward testing and vaccines, and improved COVID-19 awareness in underserved communities.
ENGAGEMENT THROUGH COLLABORATION
Our strong recruiting process has been a key factor in the success of the study. By partnering with community-based and healthcare worker organizations at the earliest phases of the project, we were able to establish trust among the populations we needed to reach and develop materials that felt most relevant to them. We then used two strategies for recruiting test participants:
- Recruit vulnerable healthcare workers to serve as ambassadors among their families, friends and networks.
- Use a traditional community outreach approach, focusing on community based organizations.
RESULTS
WHAT WE ARE LEARNING
Read more about the project in these publications:
Barrett ES, Andrews TR, Roy J, Greenberg P, Ferrante JM, Horton DB, Gordon M, Rivera-Núñez Z, Pellerano MB, Tallia AF, Budolfson M, Georgopoulos P, Reed D, Lynn B, Rosati R, Castañeda M, Dixon F, Pernell C, Hill D, Jimenez ME, Blaser MJ, Panettieri R Jr, Hudson SV. Community- Versus Health Care Organization-Based Approaches to Expanding At-Home COVID-19 Testing in Black and Latino Communities, New Jersey, 2021. Am J Public Health. 2022 Nov;112(S9):S918-S922. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.306989. Epub 2022 Oct 20. PMID: 36265092; PMCID: PMC9707722.
Pellerano MB, Hill D, Jimenez ME, Gordon M, Macenat M, Ferrante JM, Rivera-Núñez Z, Devance D, Lima D, Sullivan B, Crabtree BF, Georgopoulos P, Barrett ES, Reed DJ, Pernell CT, Dawkins MR, Lynn B, Dixon F, Castañeda M, Garcia H, Blaser MJ, Panettieri RA Jr, Hudson SV (2022) Connect: Cultivating academic/community partnerships to address our communities' complex needs during public health crises. Progress in Community Health Partnerships. (Forthcoming.) 15 August 2022.
RADx-UP RESEARCH BRIEF: This summary of the JAMA Network Open article, “Black and Latinx Community Perspectives on COVID-19 Mitigation Behaviors, Testing, and Vaccines”, includes the results in English and Spanish.
Jimenez ME, Rivera-Núñez Z, Crabtree BF, Hill D, Pellerano MB, Devance D, Macenat M, Lima D, Martinez Alcaraz E, Ferrante JM, Barrett ES, Blaser MJ, Panettieri RA Jr, Hudson SV. Black and Latinx Community Perspectives on COVID-19 Mitigation Behaviors, Testing, and Vaccines. JAMA Network Open. 2021 Jul 1;4(7):e2117074. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen. 2021.17074. PMID: 34264327; PMCID: PMC8283554.
Rivera-Núñez Z, Jimenez ME, Crabtree BF, Hill D, Pellerano MB, Devance D, Macenat M, Lima D, Gordon M, Sullivan B, Rosati RJ, Ferrante JM, Barrett ES, Blaser, MJ, & Hudson, SV (2022). Experiences of Black and Latinx health care workers in support roles during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study. PLOS ONE, 17(1), e0262606.
NJ ACTS 4 Us! CONNECT magazine (Issue# 1, Fall 2021): https://go.rutgers.edu/NJACTS4Us-CONNECT
More To Come
OUR PARTNERS
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ABOUT US
NJ HEROES TOO brought together researchers and healthcare/community partners in a joint effort led by:
If you have questions, please email us at NJHEROESTOO@rutgers.edu
SHAWNA HUDSON, PH.D.
(CONTACT PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR)
Henry Rutgers Chair of Family Medicine & Community Health
Professor & Research Division Chief, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health
Director, Center Advancing Research & Evaluation for Patient-Centered Care (CARE-PC), RWJMS
Co-Director of Community Engagement, NJ Alliance for Clinical & Translational Science (NJ ACTS)
REYNOLD PANETTIERI, JR., M.D.
Vice Chancellor, Clinical & Translational Science
Director, Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine & Science
Professor of Medicine, RWJMS
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
DIANE HILL, PH.D.
Assistant Chancellor, University-Community Partnership, Office of the Chancellor
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, School of Public Affairs & Administration, Rutgers University-Newark
MANNY JIEMENEZ, M.D. M.S. FAAP.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics & Family Medicine and Community Health
Director, Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics Education, Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, RWJMS
EMILY BARRETT, PH.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology
Rutgers School of Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences lnstitute
MARTIN BLASER, M.D.
Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome
Professor of Medicine & Microbiology, RWJMS
Director, Center of Advanced Biotechnology & Medicine, Rutgers University