Public Health Commons^™

Revisiting The Master Food Volunteer Program: Examining How To Enhance Nutrition Education In The United States, Stacey Viera, Lindsey Haynes-Maslow

The Journal of Extension

America’s diet-related illness crisis intersects with a lack of nutrition literacy, nutrition security, and systemic inequities. The Cooperative Extension Service’s (CES) national infrastructure could potentially provide equitable access to quality nutrition education in the US utilizing a Master Food Volunteer (MFV) model. This research brief examined preliminary evidence for the MFV model as a support for CES agents and paraprofessionals, and results show a paucity of evidence. Further research and a pilot program with pre-established measures for health-related knowledge and behaviors could elucidate the model’s potential to increase equitable access to evidence-based programming, nutrition, and implementation guidance.

Webinars As A Tool For Increasing Awareness Of Diabetes Prevention And Management Programs, Cindy Jenkins, Carrie Durward, April Litchford, Catherine Hansen, Annette Prall, Caitlyn Jasumback

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Stakeholders sought to reduce the burden of preventable diabetes among adults in Utah via a “Food as Medicine” webinar series. The “Food as Medicine” webinar series sought to increase awareness of and enrollment in public diabetes programs. Evaluation results from the webinar series indicated an increase in awareness of diabetes programs and nutrition information needed to improve personal diabetes management.

Implementation Of A Drive-Through Covid-19 Mass Vaccination Site: Experiences From Louvax–Broadbent In Louisville, Kentucky, Ruth Carrico, Sarah Beth Hartlage, Valenchia Brown Msn, Aprn, Fnp-C, Sarah M. Bishop, Luanne Didelot, William Hayden, Beverly Williams Coleman, Sarah Tan, Delanor Manson, Kellie Kane, Dawn Balcom, Paul Kern

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Background: Response to the COVID-19 pandemic has required innovative approaches to vaccination, including methods to rapidly and safely immunize communities. A major challenge to such a response involved access to untapped healthcare worker resources. The Louisville, Kentucky, response involved the use of a large volunteer workforce to supplement local public health employees in planning and implementing a large-scale drive-through vaccination event. The objective of this manuscript was to outline processes involved in training a mass immunization workforce and implementating a large-scale COVID-19 community vaccination.

Approach: Competency-based and standardized training was provided for every volunteer before working their shift. Volunteers worked …

Black And White Health Disparities: Racial Bias In American Healthcare, Yasmeen Almomani

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper explores the historical implications of race in American society that have led to implicit racism in the healthcare system. Racial bias in healthcare against Black people is a factor in the health disparities between Black and white people in America, such as the gap in life expectancy, infant death, and maternal mortality. Black people are more likely to report racial discrimination from healthcare providers, which is a reason for the decreased quality of care received. The past justifications of slavery, the Tuskegee syphilis study, and the medical experimentations on Black women are horrifying but were considered acceptable in …

Teaching Foundational Aquatic Skills To Children In Open Water Environments, Chris Button, Angela J. Button, Anne-Marie Jackson, Jim D. Cotter, Brian Maraj

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Learning to swim in a swimming pool might not prepare water competence sufficiently for different aquatic environments. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of teaching children water safety knowledge and skills in open water environments (i.e., harbor, river, and surf). The aquatic knowledge and skills of 98 children (7-11 years old) were tested in a swimming pool before, immediately after, and three months after receiving a three-day intensive education program. At pre-test, typically fewer than 50% of children achieved a high level of water safety competence. After the program, competency in each of the six tasks …

The Ocean Lifeguard Intervention Continuum: A Cognitive Aid For Surf Lifeguard Education, William A. Koon, Ryan M. Gates, Shane Scoggins, Paul Andrus, Jack A. Futoran

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Ocean lifeguards are constantly engaged in beach risk analysis, required to efficiently evaluate a variety of environmental and other factors quickly in order to triage and prioritize who needs help. Teaching these skills is a challenge for introductory training programs. We sought to improve new lifeguards’ understanding of the interaction of various risk components in the beach environment and aid decision-making related to when a lifeguard should intervene in a situation. We developed a two-part cognitive aid for introductory ocean lifeguard education depicting individual and interacting elements of a beach goer’s risk of drowning or injury and the process by …

Training Evaluation For Introductory Ocean Lifeguard Instruction: A Practical Example From California, William A. Koon, Ryan M. Gates, Jack Futoran

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Ocean lifeguards have several responsibilities that require precise training. California State Parks is one of the largest providers of open water lifeguard services in the United States, and trains approximately 200 new lifeguards per year. As part of our lifeguard training section’s quality improvement efforts, we conducted a training needs assessment to help determine how well our introductory ocean lifeguard training curriculum prepared lifeguards to perform job related tasks upon successful completion of the training program. We surveyed both first year and seasoned lead lifeguards on operational needs, training gaps, and specific subject areas. We identified several areas where our …

My Experience In Swaziland With Give Hope, Fight Poverty, Megan Kaser

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Megan Kaser, a recent 2017 alum in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University, describes her experience with Give Hope, Fight Poverty (GHFP)—a nonprofit organization in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in physician assistant studies. GHFP’s mission is “to foster philanthropy domestically by designing service-learning programs that engage U.S. college students with rural communities in Swaziland, Africa, and work together to educate, empower, and lift orphaned and vulnerable children—particularly those living in child-headed households— out of poverty” (Give Hope, Fight Poverty, n.d.). By incorporating college students in the implementation of GHFP orphan education …

Post-Apartheid South Africa’S Ultimate Challenge, Nahomie Julien

DISCOVERY: Georgia State Honors College Undergraduate Research Journal

Throughout time, South Africa has experienced many upheavals, be they slavery and apartheid or natural, socioeconomic, and political misfortunes.Just after overcoming the oppression of Apartheid, South Africans have to face one of the deadliest illness in the world: HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is currently the number one killer in South Africa(WHO, 2012). This pandemic further worsen the struggles of the nation, obstructing its educational, financial, and political recovery (Oglethorpe, & Gelman, (2008).; Weiser, et al., 2007.). This paper seeks to analyze how apartheid—or rather, its demise—contributed to the alarmingly rapid spread of this pandemic in South Africa. In so doing, the current …

Behavioral Change In Homosexual Men At Risk Of Aids: Intervention And Policy Implications, Suzanne B. Montgomery, Jill G. Joseph

New England Journal of Public Policy

With more than fifty thousand cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) diagnosed since its initial recognition in 1981 and no cure or vaccine in sight, experts agree that prevention is of the utmost importance. Yet very little research has investigated how existing social-psychological and health behavioral knowledge can be applied to the special circumstances of programmatic responses to AIDS. One of the central aims of our own research group has been to describe the psychosocial determinants of successful behavioral risk reduction among homosexual men, the largest affected group. This work is reviewed and its implications for the development of intervention …

The Role Of Education In Aids Prevention, George A. Lamb, Linette G. Liebling

New England Journal of Public Policy

The severity of the current AIDS epidemic, combined with the lack of successful biological interventions, necessitates an active educational program as the primary intervention strategy. Health education theories abound, but relatively little definitive application of these theories has been made to the issues involved with HIV transmission: sexual behavior and the sharing of intravenous drug apparatus. Significant behavior changes have occurred in some people, but the consistency of the behavior change may be difficult to sustain. Thus, the authors suggest that health education should be delivered repeatedly in culturally acceptable language and format, by community leaders, and through many different …

Introducing Aids Education In Connecticut Schools, William Sabella

New England Journal of Public Policy

Most of the nation 's schoolchildren are not infected with the AIDS virus (HIV). Since AIDS is a preventable disease, no one need become infected. In order to protect themselves, everyone, including children, must understand exactly how HIV is and is not contracted. The message of prevention, however, is controversial, since it must include advice on safer sex and drug use.

In 1984, Connecticut was forced to face the issue of a child with HIV infection entering school. The state responded by creating guidelines for prevention of disease transmission in schools and by subsequently developing an AIDS curriculum. Obstacles to …