Online nursing courses offered to educate healthcare officials about rural care

QUINCY (WGEM) - With farmers out planting and driving heavy machinery, the threat of getting seriously hurt is always present.

SIU officials said their AgriSafe Nurse Scholar program can give local health professionals the training they need to treat ag-related injuries. Available through the Farm Family Resource Initiative, it offers 20 hours of credits for health care professionals wanting to familiarize themselves with medical training for rural patients.

SIU Family Medicine site administrative director Amanda Hutton said these courses are important for healthcare officials in rural areas to help provide the best care for farmers.

She said with it being spring and a lot of farmers out planting, it’s the best time for nurses or other healthcare professionals to take this training, when farmers are working around heavy machinery and sharp equipment.

“You’re getting in and out of large equipment, you are checking your equipment, you are moving around, so I think that’s what we probably see the most is just people getting nicked or cut,” Hutton said. “Or getting, even, you know, severely getting trapped in-between types of different equipment.”

Hutton said the training allows healthcare officials to continue getting information about their patient to help provide quality care by asking questions related to the farmer’s work.

She said the training though can also assist in helping healthcare officials be aware of long term problems for farmers as well.

“So our farmers are out in the sun,” she said. “They may not have the right personal protective equipment as far as hats or sunscreens so some long term effects of being over exposed to the sun you might see melanoma cases,” Hutton said.

Hutton said the extra training can help put the nurses on guard and spot potential injuries or assess injuries further to make sure they are providing farmers with the best care by communicating what they learned with physicians.

For more information about the courses you can email Karen Leavitt Stallman at karenstallman@siu.edu or call her at (314) 651-5907or email Steve Sandstrom at ssandstrom@siumed.edu or call him at (217) 545-5616 .