Agricultural Safety & Health Training for Public Health Graduate Students (TPG)
In 2001, NIOSH funded a novel educational proposal by the Southeast Center to provide public health students at the University of Kentucky with specialized education and training in the health of agricultural populations. Students from any department within the College of Public Health -- biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, health behavior, health services management, or gerontology -- can opt for a special curriculum sequence within their degree program and graduate with a “Health of Agricultural Populations” (HAP) emphasis. The HAP curriculum sequence established in 2001 is not a training program grant and provides only fractional tuition and research support without stipends. As of 2005, however, the HAP emphasis area developed sufficient interest and student participation to move from the aegis of the Southeast Center to a separate training program grant (TPG). Through CDC/NIOSH Cooperative Agreement 5 T01 OH008846-03, the HAP-TPG applies in-depth training in agricultural safety and health across traditional public health coursework, research projects, and field experiences. Qualified students may be eligible to receive funding in support of capstone projects, data collection, and travel to scientific meetings, as well as tuition support and stipends.
MPH students accepted to the HAP-TPG must complete 42-44 semester hours to graduate, of which at least 15 semester hours must be directly related to agricultural health and safety and injury research. DrPH students in the HAP-TPG must complete 74-78 semester hours to graduate, of which at least 25 semester hours must be HAP-TPG related. PhD students in Epidemiology/Biostatistics must complete a minimum of 58 credit hours of study plus dissertation research and the corresponding residency credits, of which at least 16 hours must be directly related to agricultural occupational safety and health.
The HAP-TPG at the University of Kentucky is unique in that it systematically integrates traditional public health course work with training relevant to the occupational safety and health of agricultural populations at a land-grant university with Colleges of Agriculture, Medicine, Nursing, Engineering, Public Health, Social Work, Communications, and Education on a single campus.
No other agricultural safety and health training program has the potential to span the full spectrum of graduate education in public health (Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Gerontology, Health Behavior, and Health Services Management, plus Environmental Health) and thereby prepare trainees to succeed as part of larger, transdisciplinary teams in the “real world” of field service and professional practice.
Prospective students and other interested persons should complete the Declaration of Interest form and send it to Robert H. McKnight, MPH, ScD; The Provost's Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, University of Kentucky College of Public Health; Director, Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention; Suite 1A, 342 Waller Avenue, Lexington, KY 40504-9842, Phone: 859-323-6836, Fax: 859-254-3760.