Abstract Community health workers are responsible for finding, processing, and transferring health information to communities with limited access to health‐related resources, including farmworkers. This paper is the culmination of an undergraduate student research project to explore the learning processes and preferences of farmworker‐serving community health workers in the USA. The project was designed for students from farmworker or agricultural backgrounds at two North Carolina universities and was supported by a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services workforce development grant. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted, in person and virtually, with a convenience sample of 17 current and former community health workers. The interview data were analysed thematically and identified a preference for a combination of learning styles, with visual and hands‐on learning being the most preferred. Community health workers also identified the importance of learning preferences in relation to their responsibilities as health educators. This study provides librarians, along with public health and medical professionals, with useful information about learning preferences to inform the creation of new and varied learning materials for community health workers.
Pesticide exposure represents a significant occupational health hazard for farmworkers, and handwashing is one strategy to reduce exposure via the dermal route. After learning about recent research findings regarding the lack of handwashing utilized by North Carolina farmworkers in the field, the North Carolina Farmworker Health Program approached the student and faculty member who conducted the research to partner and improve handwashing education, with the goal of reducing pesticide exposure among farmworkers. The resulting handwashing educational toolkit was the product of a participatory development project that engaged farmworker health outreach workers with university partners in every stage—from needs assessment to method and message selection and, ultimately, educational material development and evaluation. This promising project serves as a model for a sustainable partnership among a student, faculty member, and community organization and underscores the importance of respect, equality, and distributed power in collaboratively responding to a community-identified need.
Pesticide exposure is associated with deleterious health effects. Prior studies suggest Latino farmworkers perceive little control over their occupational health. Using the Health Belief Model as a theoretical guide, we explored the perceptions of Latino farmworkers working in tobacco in North Carolina (
Agricultural workers such as migrant and seasonal farmworkers are a population uniquely vulnerable to the negative effects of climate-related disasters. The primary aim of this study was to assess how counties in eastern North Carolina (NC) incorporated best practices related to agricultural workers in emergency preparedness planning. The authors conducted a quantitative content analysis of 47 emergency preparedness plans from 41 eastern NC counties between November 2022 and March 2023. The research team developed a codebook based on recommended best practices from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Farmworker Advocacy Network, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and National Center for Farmworker Health. Best practices included having materials in Spanish language, mapping vulnerable populations, and garnering input from agricultural workers. Of the 47 plans evaluated, most lacked inclusion of agricultural workers in emergency preparedness planning. Furthermore, plans demonstrated few relevant best practices that address agricultural workers' specific challenges in preparation for and recovery from climate-related disasters. Public emergency preparedness plans in eastern NC rarely include mention of recommended best practices related to agricultural workers. Local emergency preparedness officials should consider collaboration with advocacy groups, community health workers, and federal emergency management agencies to build disaster resilience.
Abstract The purpose of this case study was to examine signs as a means of communicating fish consumption advisory information to English- and Spanish-speaking anglers in North Carolina. This study involved a group of stakeholders, including representatives from local and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academia, as well as 38 anglers in focus group discussions to learn about their knowledge and beliefs in the context of fishing in polluted waterways, including what they knew about fish consumption advisories and their perceptions of prototype signs. Across groups, participants identified two confusing elements of signs: the allowable number of servings of fish under advisory and distinct consumption recommendations for different subgroups. They recommended streamlined messaging and the use of visuals, lay terms, and locally relevant languages as ways to improve prototype signs. Additionally, participants identified the state wildlife agency as a common source of information about fish safety, more so than signs. These results suggest opportunities for improved communication of advisories, especially to the most at-risk populations.
Informal science educators play a key role in promoting science literacy, safety, and health by teaching pesticide toxicology to the large, at-risk Latino farmworker population in the United States (US). To understand the experiences of informal science educators and the nature of farmworker education, we must have knowledge of farmworker educators‘ beliefs, yet little is known about these beliefs and how beliefs about teaching, pesticide risk, and self-efficacy might influence teaching environments and practices and potentially inform the field of informal science education. In this exploratory, descriptive case study, we used questionnaires and interviews to investigate the teaching, pesticide risk, and self-efficacy beliefs of 19 farmworker educators in one southeastern US state, identifying salient personal, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence beliefs using Bandura‘s (1986) model of reciprocal determinism. We found that two distinct groups of farmworker educators emerged based on work affiliation. Health care and advocacy educators typically had more learner-focused beliefs, greater concern about pesticide risks, and lower self-efficacy. In contrast, state agency and Cooperative Extension/university educators expressed more teacher-focused beliefs, less cautious pesticide risk beliefs, and higher self-efficacy. Three factors emerged as important influences on these informal educators‘ beliefs: quantity of lessons provided, shared language with learners, and experience with handling pesticides. Study implications include recommendations for future work in informal science education research to explore the role of educators‘ authentic experiences with science, the significance of educators‘ institutional affiliations, and the prevalence of low self-efficacy among educators.
