Robyn Shumer, MPH¹, Mitchel A Rosen, MS¹, Marita K. Murrman, EdD², and Carol D. Young, PhD³. (1) School of Public Health - Office of Public Health Practice, University of Medicine & Dentistry, 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ 08854, 732-235-9451, shumerrb@umdnj.edu, (2) Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168 Street, Room 914, New York, NY 10032, (3) Continuing Education, University at Albany School of Public Health, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456

Nurses receive little training on environmental hazards on human health. Since the goals of the HRSA funded Public Health Training Centers (PHTC) are to address learning needs of the public health workforce, it was natural to link nursing training needs to the PHTC. The New York New Jersey PHTC developed an environmental health continuing education program for nurses. By the end of the course, nurses were expected to demonstrate competency in explaining concepts related to environmental health exposure; define environmental health terms; explain how to use an environmental health exposure assessment during a patient history and assessment; identify susceptible populations for environmental exposures; and make referrals to environmental health resources. Year one provided a half-day lecture. Year two modified and built upon year one by including case studies and an optional train-the-trainer component. Nurses trained in train-the-trainer are equipped with course materials and are sufficiently trained to facilitate the training to the nursing workforce within their geographic region. Year-one-training was offered at three locations: New York State, New York City and New Jersey. Year two was offered at 7 locations throughout New York State, New York City and New Jersey. Year three will be facilitated by nurses who completed the train-the-trainer module and will be offered throughout these geographic regions. Surveys are being conducted to assess the impact of year two training in each participant's practice.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to (
• describe the three phases of training nurses from three geographic areas; (
• explain curriculum development and instructional process; (
• highlight organizational and content lessons learned

Keywords: Environmental Health, Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: New York New Jersey Public Health Training Center
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.