Using a Site Visit to a Contaminated Location as a Focus for Environmental Health Education for Academic and Public Health Nurses

Details

• Personal Author:
  Backus ASN ; Chalupka SM ; Hewitt JB
• Description:
  We describe a conference initiative that is distinguished by the use of a ''community case study'' to increase the knowledge and skills of nursing faculty and public health nurses in environmental health and to provide networking support to facilitate infusion of environmental health into nursing curricula and public health nursing practice. The Institute of Medicine's (1995) general environmental health competencies for nurses provided the conference framework. Woburn, Massachusetts, a Superfund site, served as the community case study to illustrate a complex environmental health problem. Over an extended period of time, Woburn was contaminated with multiple chemicals that eventually contaminated the drinking water supply; a cluster of childhood leukemia cases was linked subsequently to the Superfund site contaminants. A 6-hr interpreted walking and bus tour of the Superfund site enabled us to visit the premises of responsible parties, the vapor extraction fields, the capped Well H in the wooded wetlands, and to tour the affected neighborhood. This intensive, hands-on approach to learning environmental health content and skills that incorporated multiple learning strategies serves as a model for developing future conferences for public health nurses and nursing faculty. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry Education Environmental Exposure Health Personnel Neoplasms Occupational Health Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Community Case Study Cancer Chemical Properties Chemicals Children Competencies Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Health Nursing Education Humans Institute Of Medicine Competencies Models Nurses Nursing Faculty Public Health Public Health Nursing Education

  More +
• ISSN:
  0737-1209
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  410-432
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061681
• Citation:
  Public Health Nurs 2006 Sep-Oct; 23(5):410-432
• Contact Point Address:
  Ann S.N. Backus, M.S., Occupational Health Program, Room 1-1402, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
• Email:
  abackus@hohp.harvard.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Public Health Nursing
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f075ee81bddc2e0ab6853446f18b39a7cb5371447c26983b99e47d8d60f2cc197ad5956d211f1aa3787873f5907b75e5102076c281a28dd99773ebf7b192cee8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225130/cdc_225130_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.67 MB ]