Purpose With the growing number of immigrants in Korea, immigrant health has become a significant public health concern. This study aimed to explore immigrant women's motivations for and experiences of participating in a community-based prenatal pilot program, with the goal of informing the future development and expansion of multicultural-friendly educational content and effective delivery systems to promote health.
Methods Among 19 participants in the program, six immigrant women who had lived in Korea for over three years were invited to participate in an exit group interview. The two-hour session was moderated by two qualitative research experts, digitally recorded, and transcribed verbatim. A content analysis was conducted using triangulation to ensure credibility and depth.
Results Participants were motivated to join the program both to receive help and to offer help to others. Their experiences included a sense of comfort and joy from receiving accurate health information and forming new relationships, as well as building trust through educational and emotional support. They also expressed unmet needs, such as expanding health education content and including their family members as part of the target audience. Furthermore, they wished to be acknowledged as active contributors to Korean society by serving as peer mentors.
Conclusions There is a need to develop culture-friendly health education programs for improving immigrant health. Bilingual and bicultural immigrant women can play vital roles as community health workers, promoting public health and health equity. This approach may also support their social reintegration and empowerment.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of public officials working for the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) response in community health centers in South Korea.
Methods: A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted using data collected from three focus groups and two individual interviews.
Results: The participants performed quarantine tasks in a poor working environment with several problems, such as significant workload, lack of manpower, and inappropriate compensation system. Participants experienced obstacles in performing quarantine works, which had the lack of the detailed quarantine guidelines, work support and cooperation system. Participants suffered from civil complaints. Participants endured sacrifices in their personal lives while partaking in COVID-19 response work without holidays, and subsequently experienced health problems. And also participants said that it was necessary to secure expertise and effective communication for infectious disease management.
Conclusion: The study results suggest that policies are required that are aimed to improve the working environment and the recruitment of experts in infectious diseases. In addition, the job stress related to the COVID-19 response by public officials in community health centers must be evaluated, and the relation of their job stress to physical and mental problems, as well as psychosocial stress, must be examined.
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