Selecting and Training Contact Tracers to Address Minority Health Disparities: Lessons from COVID-19
Start Date
28-6-2021 10:10 AM
End Date
28-6-2021 10:55 AM
Topic
Mitigating Outbreaks
Session Chair
Samantha Friedman
Abstract
Like most public health emergencies, COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted minority communities and exacerbated pre-existing health disparities (Hooper et al., 2020; Selden & Berdahl, 2020). Contact tracing, which refers to the process of contacting individuals who have been exposed to a communicable disease, collecting information about who they have been in close proximity with, and making suitable recommendations for testing, quarantine, and medical care, is one particularly effective method for reducing the spread of disease. Consequently, state and local governments had to rapidly hire, train, and send forth an “army” of contact tracers to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in order to safely reopen schools and the economy. However, not much was known about the individual characteristics required to perform this critical job effectively, particularly in a way that ensured equal treatment of all individuals and effective contact with minority communities. Randall et al. (2021) and Dalal et al. (2021) showed that well selected and trained contact tracers, and trust and knowledge about the contact tracing role are critical aspects of contact tracing compliance among minority individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. From these two research studies, we identify that a gap in addressing minority health disparities has been a lack of considering the science of personnel psychology in developing a well-skilled and well-trained workforce to work in minority communities; communities in which trust in healthcare and government institutions has been eroded due to historical, systemic mistreatment of minority groups. Drawing on theories from personnel psychology (e.g., Guion, 2011), we present a blueprint to extend this work by presenting a comprehensive picture of procedures to efficiently, fairly, and validly select and train contact tracers to address future public health crises, and to effectively work within minority communities. Future steps to develop selection and training systems are also identified to facilitate the establishment of a contact tracing personnel system and to expand these procedures to other public-facing health support positions. Being more proactive in preparing public health personnel to work more effectively in minority communities should increase preparation for future health crises and contribute to the elimination of minority health disparities. The information shared in this project will guide this future work by presenting the steps needed to achieve this goal.
Author Bio
Aileen J. Dowden is currently an Industrial Organizational Psychology doctoral student at the University at Albany, SUNY. Having just completed her third year and is done with classes, her next position will be a statistics instructor in the Psychology Department. She researches recruitment and selection of employees for organizations and has more recently been interested in diversity and inclusion best practices for organizations. This research includes understanding potential job candidates social identity and how that influences attraction to organizations and the well-being of maximizing decision makers. The most recent research project looking at how to select and train contact tracers for better support minority communities was especially exciting as it consisted of studying a population that is often neglected. Having been trained in a breadth of organization practices and strategies, past projects have included creating a new performance management system for supervisors in a statewide organization, restructuring trainings for an organization to be more engaging and create a better learning environment, and measure engagement of employees for multiple organizations to provide more direct resources and support. After completing her dissertation, she plans to to consult for organizations on how to properly and fairly select potential employees by reducing biases with decision makers and the system they are using as well as how to better manage current employees to make the job more engaging and meaningful. In her spare time she enjoys completing jigsaw puzzles, spending time with friends (and has become very familiar with using Zoom), and looks forward to reuniting with familiar faces in the near future.
Dev K. Dalal, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University at Albany, State University of New York. His areas of specialization include judgment and decision-making and personnel psychology, and has studied how to communicate quantitative information, how risk taking propensity affects behavior, and how perceived uncertainty influences decision making.
Gabrielle C. Danna is currently a doctoral student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology here at the University at Albany, SUNY. Her research interests include employee learning, self-regulation, and group processes. Prior to studying at University at Albany, she received her B.S in Psychology at Louisiana State University.
(Presenter)
Dr. Jason Randall is a personnel psychologist with expertise in the measurement and development of the psychological attributes (e.g., cognitive abilities, personality, skills and knowledge) that are important for employee selection, training, motivation, and performance. He has experience with experimental lab research, field studies, meta-analysis, and a variety of statistics and psychometrics techniques and programs. Dr. Randall has utilized his expertise as a personnel psychologist to help the workforce respond to the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 crisis. His research has demonstrated the need to continue supporting workforce training and development during this time of crisis to keep employees and constituents safe. Additionally, Dr. Randall’s research suggests that proper selection and training methods to equip frontline workers—particularly contact tracers—with the knowledge and skills they need to work effectively with minority communities may help to build trust and knowledge in order to mitigate disease spread. His broader expertise on e-learning and self-regulation have implications for how healthcare organizations (among others) might work more effectively to combat minority health disparities. Dr. Randall’s research has been funded by the Army Research Institute, Workforce Development Institute, and New York’s Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. His work has been published in various peer-reviewed scientific journal outlets including Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Business and Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, and International Journal of Selection and Assessment, among others. He joined the Psychology Department at the University at Albany, SUNY as an Assistant Professor in 2016.
Document Type
Extended Abstract
Selecting and Training Contact Tracers to Address Minority Health Disparities: Lessons from COVID-19
Like most public health emergencies, COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted minority communities and exacerbated pre-existing health disparities (Hooper et al., 2020; Selden & Berdahl, 2020). Contact tracing, which refers to the process of contacting individuals who have been exposed to a communicable disease, collecting information about who they have been in close proximity with, and making suitable recommendations for testing, quarantine, and medical care, is one particularly effective method for reducing the spread of disease. Consequently, state and local governments had to rapidly hire, train, and send forth an “army” of contact tracers to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in order to safely reopen schools and the economy. However, not much was known about the individual characteristics required to perform this critical job effectively, particularly in a way that ensured equal treatment of all individuals and effective contact with minority communities. Randall et al. (2021) and Dalal et al. (2021) showed that well selected and trained contact tracers, and trust and knowledge about the contact tracing role are critical aspects of contact tracing compliance among minority individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. From these two research studies, we identify that a gap in addressing minority health disparities has been a lack of considering the science of personnel psychology in developing a well-skilled and well-trained workforce to work in minority communities; communities in which trust in healthcare and government institutions has been eroded due to historical, systemic mistreatment of minority groups. Drawing on theories from personnel psychology (e.g., Guion, 2011), we present a blueprint to extend this work by presenting a comprehensive picture of procedures to efficiently, fairly, and validly select and train contact tracers to address future public health crises, and to effectively work within minority communities. Future steps to develop selection and training systems are also identified to facilitate the establishment of a contact tracing personnel system and to expand these procedures to other public-facing health support positions. Being more proactive in preparing public health personnel to work more effectively in minority communities should increase preparation for future health crises and contribute to the elimination of minority health disparities. The information shared in this project will guide this future work by presenting the steps needed to achieve this goal.
Comments
The recording of this presentation ends at 2:21:42