A campus-community partnership for farmworkers' health: interventions for tomato workers in Tennessee.
BACKGROUND
Migrant farm workers are exposed to job hazards in Tennessee, which is among the top five tomato-producing states.


OBJECTIVE
This project sought to cultivate and evaluate a partnership to marshal greater resources to address migrants' concerns and to better prepare future health professionals to address occupational issues.


METHODS
In the spring of 2008, an interprofessional student-faculty team at a regional university catalyzed a partnership with a clinic for migrants and a national network caring for the itinerant underserved.


RESULTS
Several community-based participatory research (CBPR) activities are underway. The partnership has resulted in the following projects: Use of the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method to identify job tasks likely to be injurious, development and use of a health screening questionnaire to capture more information about occupational health, and continuing education seminars for providers and a case-based curriculum module for third-year medical students.


CONCLUSIONS
Interprofessional service learning about migrant occupational health issues may have its greatest impact as participating students enter the regional workforce, caring for patients employed in slow-to-change agricultural operations.
Ken
K
Silver
Karin
K
Hoffman
Sharon
S
Loury
Nathan B
NB
Fethke
Amy
A
Liebman
Nicole
N
Manz
Steve
S
Manock
Alexis
A
Andino
Michael
M
Bradfield
David
D
Morrissette
Joseph
J
Florence
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000382:Agricultural Workers' Diseases / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001061:Appalachian Region; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control; D016272:Occupational Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D013714:Tennessee; D014171:Transients and Migrants; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055815:Young Adult