Children’s Environmental Health Faculty Champions Initiative: A Successful Model for Integrating Environmental Health into Pediatric Health Care

Details

• Personal Author:
  Grubb K ; McCurdy LE ; Roberts, Jennifer R. ; Rogers B ; Slavin K
• Description:
  Background: Pediatric medical and nursing education lack the environmental health content needed to properly prepare health care professionals to prevent, recognize, manage, and treat environmental exposure-related diseases. The need for improvements in health care professionals' environmental health knowledge has been expressed by leading institutions. However, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of programs that incorporate pediatric environmental health (PEH) into curricula and practice. Objective: We evaluated the effectiveness of the National Environmental Education Foundation's (NEEF) Children's Environmental Health Faculty Champions Initiative, which is designed to build environmental health capacity among pediatric health care professionals. Methods: Twenty-eight pediatric health care professionals participated in a train-the-trainer workshop, in which they were educated to train other health care professionals in PEH and integrate identified PEH competencies into medical and nursing practice and curricula. We evaluated the program using a workshop evaluation tool, action plan, pre- and posttests, baseline and progress assessments, and telephone interviews. Results: During the 12 months following the workshop, the faculty champions' average pretest score of 52% was significantly elevated (p < 0.0001) to 65.5% on the first posttest and to 71.5% on the second posttest, showing an increase and retention of environmental health knowledge. Faculty champions trained 1,559 health care professionals in PEH, exceeding the goal of 280 health care professionals trained. Ninety percent of faculty champions reported that PEH had been integrated into the curricula at their institution. Conclusion: The initiative was highly effective in achieving its goal of building environmental health capacity among health care professionals. The faculty champions model is a successful method and can be replicated in other arenas. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Health Personnel Health Promotion Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Children Children Education Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Health Care Personnel Health Communications Medical Schools Medicine Nurses Nursing Nursing Schools Pediatrics Training

  More +
• ISSN:
  0091-6765
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Maryland ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; South Carolina
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  117
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054104
• Citation:
  Environ Health Perspect 2009 May; 117(5):850-855
• Contact Point Address:
  L.E. McCurdy, National Environmental Education Foundation, 4301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 160, Washington, DC 20008 USA
• Email:
  mccurdy@neefusa.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Health Perspectives
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:db0fdec1b1b152eb368783160751b9758ade65a65177ec157877ca3d144187e55ec65590cb009a05447015a0b7b33a6dd9f64592aca9de5a525c07ba97978af7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/216738/cdc_216738_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 179.63 KB ]