Physician Training Related to Environmental Hazards near Ash Superfund Sites.
Alan Becker, Rima Tawk, Gebre Kiros, Sandra Suther, Aaron Hilliard, Richard Gragg, Fran Close, Cynthia M Harris
Author Information
Alan Becker: Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute of Public Health 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Rima Tawk: Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute of Public Health 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Gebre Kiros: Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute of Public Health 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Sandra Suther: Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute of Public Health, Economic, Social and Administrative Pharmacy. 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Aaron Hilliard: DOH-Duval.
Richard Gragg: Florida A&M University, School of the Environment. 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Fran Close: Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute of Public Health. 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Cynthia M Harris: Florida A&M University, College of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health. 1515 Martin Luther King, Jr., Tallahassee, FL 32307.
Physicians do not receive formal environmental health training in medical schools. The objectives of this study were to provide health care providers with basic environmental medicine training to better advise, treat or refer patients in the community and to observe any differences in the environmental medicine learning gains pre/post- test assessment. To rectify the problem of the lack of physicians' training related to environmental hazards, we conducted an environmental health workshop which targeted physicians living near Health Zone 1, Superfund ash sites. Fifty health care providers from both St. Vincent Family Medicine and Department of Health, Duval County Health Department (DOH-Duval) participated in a pre-test survey before the training and a post-test survey following the training. We used a non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test to compare pre- and post- knowledge of training participants. At the 10% level of significance, the number of incorrect answers significantly declined in the post-training survey compared to the pre-training survey for all participants from both facilities combined (p=0.083). Site-specific analysis show, while a significant difference was found for participants from the St. Vincent's site (p=0.084), the difference for participants from the DOH-Duval site was not significant (p = 0.102), although the number of incorrect answers declined. The training resulted in learning gains for the 50 participants and the evaluations were very positive with 100% of physicians recommending this training to other health care providers. Additionally, training participants gave a high mark for the environmental medicine pocket guide. In 2019, the ash sites are 90% remediated and cleanup is expected to be completed in 2022. There is still a need for additional training for physicians due to other active sites (i.e., Kerr-McGee) in the community. This study highlights the importance of providing environmental hazards training to physicians and the approach by which it could be delivered effectively.
