Covering Health in a Multicultural Society Online Training

This interactive course is a resource for understanding the increasing diversity of the audiences AHCJ members serve. The e-class is the online companion to the book “Covering Health in a Multicultural Society: A Resource Guide for Journalists.” The book is available to all members of the Association of Health Care Journalists and can be downloaded as a PDF from our Web site.

The e-class offers a summary of each chapter of the book; a special feature called Thinking Points, where health care journalists can trade ideas and comments; plus links to special Tips and Traps, Story Ideas and Web Links; and, finally, self-tests covering each chapter to reinforce the lessons shared.

The book authors said it succinctly: The very definition of the word “multicultural” evolves almost daily in a country as ethnically and culturally rich as the United States, so the goal was to use the most comprehensive interpretation of the term. The primary focus of the e-class and book is African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the United States. Because lifestyle and life circumstances also play a role in the health status of individuals and the care they receive, we also have included information on how sexual orientation and legal status affect health.

The e-class and book were supported by a grant from The California Endowment. Primarily derived from the book, the content for this course was developed by Jeff Porter, special projects director for AHCJ, and Robin Reuben, a former graduate research assistant for AHCJ. Technical development was supplied by the University of Missouri Center for Distance and Independent Study.

For this course you will need:

• PC users use Internet Explorer or Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox
• Mac users use Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox or Safari
• Internet connection

How to get started:

You have two choices. Both require AHCJ membership (Need to join?)

1. Log in as a guest, allowing you to read most of the material but does not allow you to take part in forums or short quizzes.
2. To enroll, which allows you to receive a certificate of completion, post to forums, self-test yourself and save your work, e-mail multicultural@healthjournalism.org with your name and contact information. You should receive log-in information within two business days. If you’ve already received the log-in, you can follow this link to the course and click on the “Login” button.

Proceed to course log-in.