Saint Louis University nursing students have teamed up with 100 Black Men of Metropolitan St. Louis to offer free blood pressure screenings and prostate cancer education to African-American men at 10 local barber shops, through April 4.
The weekly barbershop tour targets high-risk populations by taking the information and screenings directly to them.
“Fear of what the doctor will say, distrust of the medical community and lack of awareness about the importance of annual screenings are three reasons why African-American men often do not get access to the care they need,” said Julie Willems, a senior nursing student at SLU.
“The barbershop tour is an opportunity to bypass these barriers and raise awareness of the risk factors for hypertension and prostate cancer and the importance of detection and early intervention.”
Hypertension and prostate cancer are two serious conditions that disproportionately affect African-American men. According to the American Heart Association, uncontrolled hypertension, which can lead to stroke and cardiovascular disease, accounts for as many as one in four African-American deaths.
African-American men also have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world and the lowest rate of survival, according to the American Cancer Society.
Marvin Johnson, health and wellness division chair of 100 Black Men of Metropolitan St. Louis, said their organization had already begun planning to do a barbershop tour to raise awareness about prostate cancer when the SLU nursing students approached them with a similar idea of doing blood pressure screenings at local barbershops.
The two groups decided to pool their resources together, resulting in the collaborative barbershop tour. The Alpha Chi Chi and Rho chapters of the Chi Eta Phi professional nursing sorority have also assisted with the initiative.
“As part of our mission, we try to reach out to the community with awareness, facts and education specific to health concerns that affect African-American men and the community at large,” Johnson said.
“The barber shop was the ideal place to take our message because the barber shop is a location that many African-American men and woman frequent on a weekly basis. Further, the barber shop is a non-threatening environment where a healthy dialogue occurs about a variety of topics.”
For the students, the initiative began as a required senior project. Instead of working with an established program, though, Willems says her group wanted to do something that had never been done before and wasn’t expected.
“This entire project has been to the credit of this very creative and hard-working group of students. I am so proud of their ingenuity and leadership,” said Kris L’Ecuyer, RN, MSN, associate professor of nursing at SLU.
“They have really embraced the notion of nurses working to positively serve the health care needs of the St. Louis community.”
In addition to the blood pressure screenings and prostate cancer education, SLU nursing students counsel participants on diet modifications, such as lowering sodium intake, and the importance of exercise.
According to Willems, the two-week test run was very successful.
“So far we have received an extremely enthusiastic welcome from the community,” Willems said.
“The people in the barbershops have been having competitions to see whose blood pressure is lower.”
