Field Placement: HealthCare Foundation for Orange County
Location: Santa Ana, CA
Preceptor: Dr. Suzan Zepeda, CEO
Student Name: Louisa Franco
Year: 2003

I worked under the supervision of Dr. Suzan Zepeda, CEO of the HealthCare Foundation for Orange County (HFOC). My project was to develop and conduct an evaluation of three programs that were funded under HFOC's initiative to increase the ethnic diversity of the Orange County healthcare workforce. The evaluation consisted of finding and contacting program administrators and participants, developing interview guides, interviewing program administrators and participants, and creating a database for the completed interviews.

In November of 2000, HFOC posted a request for proposals that aimed to increase the ethnic diversity of Orange County's health care workforce. The funded proposals included the Orange County Ethnic Workforce Initiative (OCEWI), Consortium of Physicians from Latin America's Cultural Bridge Program (Cultural Bridge) and CSULB's Latino Healthcare Professionals Project (LHPP). HFOC believed that increasing the ethnic diversity in the healthcare workforce would help address the linguistic and cultural barriers that exist in the Orange County healthcare system. Additionally, they hoped that assisting motivated ethnic minorities to enter or excel in the healthcare workforce would increase worker's opportunity of upward mobility, earning a living wage, and added benefits. Accordingly, the evaluation hoped to answer the following questions:

• Did the funded programs provide training to entry-level bilingual/bicultural individuals working in the healthcare field?
• Are funded program participants working in the healthcare field directly addressing the linguistic and cultural barriers of patients in Orange County?
• Did participating in a funded program provide access to a health related career that provides an increase in living wage, benefits, and the opportunity for upward mobility?

It was decided that interviewing program participants and administrators would be the mode of measurement for this evaluation. After the interview guides were designed, I interviewed 10 program administrators and 37 program participants. Finding and interviewing program administrators was relatively easy since HFOC maintained a current contact list and most administrators were willing to be interviewed. Interviewing participants of LHPP and Cultural Bridge was completed as well. However, interviewing program participants of OCEWI was extremely difficult due to inadequate record keeping by the lead organization. This lack of accountability was disconcerting to HFOC because OCEWI was by far granted the most money and involved the most participants. Participant interviews are still ongoing by HFOC.

Originally, it was my intention to complete all interviews, analyze the results, and write the evaluation report. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so because of the unanticipated barriers including a complicated study design and the inability to retrieve a list of OCEWI participants. However, this project did provide a solid foundation for the evaluation and it did notify HFOC of lack of compliance by OCEWI to account for all participants as well as a few other administrative problems. Additionally, a rough analysis based on completed interviews was completed. Other HFOC interns will conduct the final OCEWI interviews and Dr. Zepeda will write the final report.

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