2002 Annual Report
Extension and Outreach
Educating Nurses About Guidelines for Children’s Agricultural Tasks
Michele Schermann, Research Fellow
Ruth Rasmussen, Research Fellow
John Shutske, Associate Professor and Extension Agricultural Health and
Safety Specialist
Objective
To provide continuing education opportunities for nurses and other health
professionals interested in learning about prevention of childhood injuries
using newly created safety guidelines.
Program Description
A web-based continuing education course was designed to help those working
with rural families to understand the relationships between farm work
hazards, children’s abilities, and adult supervision when assigning
tasks in the agricultural environment. Project staff also travel to rural
clinics and communities to teach the material to and offer continuing
education credits for nurses.
Outcomes
Funding was obtained October 2002 from the National Farm Medicine Center to conduct a formal evaluation of this course. Although the evaluation is still underway, preliminary results have been encouraging.