Sixteen Women Selected to Lead Rutgers College of Nursing Pilot Activity Intervention Program for Latinas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sixteen Women Selected to Lead Rutgers College of Nursing

Pilot Activity Intervention Program for Latinas

(NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 19, 2008) – Sixteen women will be honored for successfully completing a six week program to become “promotoras”, or community health workers, to implement a pilot activity intervention program for Latinas during a closing ceremony at the Salvation Army in New Brunswick, N.J. on Feb. 23 at 9 a.m.

These promotoras will participate in a study to examine Latinas’ attitudes toward physical activity led by Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member Karen T. D’Alonzo. The study is funded by a three-year $274,104 National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health grant.

“My own research indicates that for various reasons many Latinas have a difficult time adhering to a program of physical activity,” said D’Alonzo, assistant professor at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. “The promotoras are Hispanic women from the same community and they can better understand and address some of the issues that keep Latinas from being physically active.”

The women attended a six week training program that included lectures on the role and responsibilities of promotoras, hands-on training in exercise classes, interactive classes on cultural awareness, as well as certification in CPR and first aid, according to D’Alonzo, a Somerville, N.J. resident.

The promotoras will oversee a class between six and 10 women and they will conduct three physical activity/exercise classes per week over a 12 week period. The promotoras will help these women monitor their progress toward fitness. The promotoras will begin the first class in early March in selected schools in New Brunswick.

“This is a unique study because it is an example of community-based participation research,” D’Alonzo said. “These women will assist in implementing the physical activity intervention and lead the exercise groups.” 

From its headquarters at Rutgers Newark, Rutgers College of Nursing offers a broad range of academic programs on all three Rutgers campuses. The college offers a master’s program with unique practitioner specialties, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, and the first to offer a Ph.D. nursing degree in New Jersey.

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