Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (AgFF) EMPOWER: Engaging Medical Staff and Patients in Occupational Health and Wellness with Electronic Resources

The overarching goal of this proposal is to improve health among agriculture, forestry and fishing (AgFF) workers by empowering patients and clinicians to better address occupational health issues with customized resources. This resource grant will be used to update and expand the Farmworker Clinical Care Resource for Occupational Health, also known as the Farmworker Clinicians Manual website, to the “AgFF EMPOWER” (Engaging Medical Staff and Patients in Occupational Health and Wellness with Electronic Resources) web resource. This resource will enhance clinicians’ abilities to communicate, recognize occupational injuries and illnesses, and treat their patients who work in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries and improve health literacy and personal health advocacy among agriculture, forestry, and fishing workers. Workers in agriculture, forestry and fishing largely live in rural communities, often lack adequate medical and health resources and have lower socioeconomic status (SES). Over half of physicians who work in rural settings are expected to retire within the next ten years. Regardless of being trained in the U.S. or abroad, medical education is mostly based in metropolitan or urban areas, which lessens the experience and cultural knowledge of rural places, including the role of work. Over the course of all four years of medical school, students receive less than a single day of instruction on occupational medicine, with one third reporting having no curriculum on occupational medicine, let alone agricultural (which encompasses forestry and fishing) health and safety. This revised resource will serve clinicians and AgFF workers in the northeastern United States (twelve state region from Maine to West Virginia). Expanding the resource to better serve workers, including those employed in the forestry and commercial fishing industries, directly relates to the Healthy People 2030 objectives of decreasing the proportion of adults who report poor communication with their health care provider (HC/HIT-02) and increasing the health literacy of the population (HC/HIT-R01). This resource will be developed and disseminated by a team with extensive expertise in occupational medicine and occupational health research, web design and development, health literacy, and information science. The resource development strategy will have seven phases 1) review of the existing Farmworker Clinicians Manual (FCM) website, 2) identification of up to date information and resources, 3) development of assets not available elsewhere (video/photography), 4) establishment of web development partner, 5) execution of website redesign, 6) dissemination of the new AgFF EMPOWER website, and 7) continuous evaluation and maintenance.