Consider the role of nurses and other professionals in environmental health
My goal of an environmental improvement project is to address two issues: the first, is to implement an educational program on Valley Fever to PCPs in the rural and occupational health clinic in Fresno County. The project will be designed to teach PCPs on Valley Fever symptoms, etiology of the disease, its process and routes of infection in order to diagnose the disease sooner than later, and to screen vulnerable individuals who might be exposed to the coccidiodes spore. My second project is through the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) working on land use in the South industrial area of Fresno, where communities around this area will be exposed to air and noise pollution from the development of the land around them for the State's high speed rail system. My role with ANHE is to assist in the preparation of an environmental impact report through my community based organization called 'Building Healthy Communities' to the city of Fresno on the environmental impact it can have to this population of individuals who live around the high speed rail site. This project will not prevent the development of the project but with the presentation of evidenced based literature, the city will consider filtering the impact of the pollution anticipated.
Hello Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of the fact that you know what you want to do with this class, especially assisting in the preparation of of an environmental impact report. I remeber about twelve years ago, when a rail road was proposed to pass through Culver City, there was a lot of confusion, especially for the residents. An environmental health nurse was invited to talk to the residents. The nurse was objective, discussed the environmental issues we could have with the rails and the advantages. The community voted against the rail road, but it was eventually built. This is where advocacy is important in environmental issues. However, the forces, especially financial and political forces are huge.