Limited English proficient (LEP) patients, or patients that speak English less than “very well” are routinely excluded from important research and clinical trials due to language barriers. A lack of minorities in research like vaccine studies and cancer therapeutics could be improved by ensuring this growing population is integrated. One upstream solution is by incorporating trained bilingual researcher assistants (BiRA) capable of providing culturally and linguistically appropriate study support. Just as including diverse patients in studies, including BiRA can contribute to better research participation in existing research studies with LEP patients. Our goal is to inform the development of a program to increase inclusion of LEP participants in research and to decrease disparities due to language barriers by identifying barriers and facilitators current research assistants or associates (RAs) experience when interacting with LEP participants. We recruited 14 undergraduate and graduate SDSU students and conducted key informant interviews. We collected data about their experiences to identify what type of training and knowledge they would like. We are analyzing their responses and are presenting our study design and preliminary results to inform the development of our intervention. At the end of our project, we will have the critical elements needed to develop a novel training program to help the growing diverse workforce has the capacity to use their language skills to maximize their ability to work with language diverse populations to improve health and health equity.
