Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 5/6/99
Contact: Christina Chapple 101
Editors: Photos accompany release Please note local interest
SLU SCHOOL OF NURSING BRINGING HEALTH MESSAGES TO FARM FAMILIES
HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University student nurse Kim Ogden recently
gave a wiggling, but enthusiastic audience of Loranger Elementary second graders the straight
scoop on germs.
"Germs are little, bitty, tiny creatures," she said, wisely opting for a simple definition.
"They're all over the place, but you can't see them. Some of them are really, really mean and can
really make you sick. Germs hate soap and water just hate it! So, you should always wash your
hands when you come in from playing outside."
Ogden, who is from Covington, and fellow seniors Michelle Trevino of Violet and
Jennifer Huggins of Kenner are among the Southeastern School of Nursing students and faculty
who are bringing information about health and safety to farming communities in ten southeast
Louisiana parishes.
The program is part of a four-year contract between the School of Nursing and the
Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention and Education. Titled "Education
for Louisiana Farm Family Injury Prevention and Health Initiative (LaFFIP+HI), it is a perfect fit
for Southeastern's recently revised community-based nursing curricula.
"More health care services are delivered in the community today, in clinics, homes,
public health units," project director Ann Carruth said. "To better meet the needs of students,
most of our nursing clinical courses now have a community component."
The School of Nursing began the LAFFIP+HI project two years ago by teaming up with
Southeastern's Florida Parishes Social Sciences Research Center to poll farm women on their
attitudes, beliefs and opinions on agricultural health and safety topics. The data collected from
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LaFFIP+HI PROGRAM Add One
657 women in summer 1998 is now being used to tailor specific programs on farm health and
safety.
"For instance," said Carruth, "we were surprised that the survey showed that 30 percent
of the women talked about feelings of sadness or depression. The national average is 21 percent."
In response, students offered a stress relief workshop at Magnum Chapel United Methodist
Church in Livingston Parish that was attended by 50 women. Students Linda Ducote of Baton
Rouge, Rhonda Falks of Walker, Tabby Lipari of Patterson and Hillary Martin of Metairie,
who are taking a senior level course on "Promoting Healthy Communities," headed a program
featuring food, fun and facts on stress relieving techniques such as exercise, diet, relaxation and
time management.
"The feedback was wonderful," Carruth said. When School of Nursing groups began
going out into the farming communities, "I was apprehensive about how they would receive
representatives of the School of Nursing who aren't full time farmers. But women are the
gatekeepers of family health. The fact that we are willing to help with health care, opens the
door. They are receptive because we are nurses."
In the three-week program at Loranger Elementary, where two-thirds of 80 participating
second graders lived on or visited farms, Ogden, Trevino and Huggins used puppet shows, games
and fun demonstrations to get across safety messages. The hands-on lessons dealt with topics
such as safety around animals, the danger of playing in ponds or barns, avoiding pesticides and
insecticides, and the importance of protective barriers such as gloves, hats, sunglasses, goggles,
earplugs, helmets and sturdy footwear. Trevino and Huggins also put together a colorful web site
(http://alpha.selu.edu/~istu24789/) on farm safety, designed for kids.
"Lots of really great student creativity" has gone into projects, Carruth said. Students
offered blood pressure and diabetes screening at Amite's Oyster Festival and, along with
Southeastern's Speech, Language and Hearing students, checked hearing and have handed out
sun screen, ear plugs and general health tips at the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival.
Other students designed a LaFFIP+HI logo that features a perky cow steering a tractor --
properly seat-belted and sporting a protective hat and sunglasses, of course. Wendy Collins, a
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LaFFIP+HI Program Add Two
senior from Hammond, has written a children's book with a character called "Travis the
Tractor" that teaches about tractor safety. The books was illustrated by Fontainebleau High
School student Kristina Bourgeois.
At Northeast Elementary in Zachary students in professor Cynthia Prestholt's
"Promoting Healthy Communities" course worked with the school nurse to determine how many
pupils needed immunization. With parents' permission, students conducted an immunization
clinic to update students' vaccines. At Loranger Elementary, a group of eight juniors performed a
puppet show provided by the non-profit organization "Farm Safety 4 Just Kids," which stresses
the "one seat-one rider" tractor safety rule.
In conjunction with the American Heart Association and Tangipahoa Cooperative
Extension Service, nursing graduate students will offer a brain attack screening clinic in Amite in
July where farm families can determine if they are at risk for stroke.
Also this summer, 20 students will take an elective course focusing on farm health and
safety. They will earn CPR and first aid instruction from American Red Cross and will compile a
manual on how to teach first aid on the farm, focusing on serious farm injuries such as pesticide
poisoning, amputation, snake bites and tractor injuries.
Farm communities, Carruth said, "are fiercely independent. They don't want interference.
So, we are working hard at being collaborative." One project goal is to develop a women's
coalition on farm safety. "Texas and Kentucky have coalitions that increase awareness and
visibility," Carruth said. "When you are living that life (on a farm), you don't often step back and
look at the dangers and risks. When we've gotten groups together, the women will tell us, 'We
tend to forget how important first aid would be for us to know.'"
Carruth said Southeastern's project is attracting the attention of farm residents, who are
asking for health and safety programs for their areas, and nursing education colleagues, who are
interested in hearing how Southeastern has integrated community based interventions into
coursework.
"The responsive has been incredibly positive," she said.
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SIDEBAR:
WHAT THE STUDY SHOWED
In summer 1998, the Southeastern Louisiana University School of Nursing and Florida Parishes
Social Sciences Research Center surveyed 657 women in 10 southeast Louisiana parishes about
farming activities, health risks, health-seeking activities, injuries and knowledge and attitudes.
The parishes included Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena, St.
Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana.
Here are some of the things the survey found out about the women:
* 33.5 percent live on farms with 50-179 acres
* average age was 53.4 years
* of those over 70, 80 percent are widowed
* 54.2 percent viewed themselves as farm homemakers.
* 68.9 percent do not avoid sun exposure even though they believe it is dangerous
(90.4%)
* One in ten reported having skin cancer
* 74 percent had a mammogram within the last year.
* 61.9 percent had smoked in the past but had since quit.
* 74.3 percent felt they knew ore than their spouse or family about family health.
* One in six reported an injury within the last year
* 73.5 percent have driven tractors at some time; 42.3 percent drive a tractor daily
* women's time commitment to farm chores averaged 16.4 hours a week, often in
addition to working outside the home
* 46.5 percent work off the farm
* 57 percent report health status as excellent or very good
* average time on the farm since 18th birthday is 24.8 years
* 300 husbands work at another job off the farm
* 28 percent have children under the age of 18 living at home.
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