African American attitudes toward participation in health care.

African Americans tend to enter the health care system at the chronic stage of illness. Delayed knowledge results in increased morbidity (Lee & Estes, 1994). An understanding of factors surrounding decreased participation in formal health care is important for dispensers of healing as well as for African Americans who are themselves affected. One purpose of this study is to describe elements of an Africentric model and its potential for affecting nursing education and nursing practice. The objective for this research is to show how the Africentric model promotes change based on education.