Agricultural Health and Medicine Education—engaging rural practitioners to make a difference to farmers’ lives.

Discipline of Rural Health—the interdisciplinary study of health and health care delivery in rural environments— is a well‐recognised discipline globally. Within these rural populations, farmers and agricultural workers live and work. Despite increasing evidence indicating serious and ongoing inequities in health, wellbeing and safety, farming populations have lagged behind the health progress of metropolitan populations and other industries. Despite continued higher rates of workplace injuries, earlier morbidity, traumatic death and suicides in farming populations globally, there are few formal programs focused on Agricultural Health and Medicine (AH&M). Recognising this gap, a specialty postgraduate unit that focuses on the anticipation, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of illnesses and occupational injuries in agricultural populations was developed in 2010 in Australia through Deakin University [1]. The original curriculum was adapted from the University of Iowa (UoI) course[2] and was designed to enable health care providers to deal more efficaciously with particular illnesses and conditions, which farmers and agricultural workers, as distinct from other rural people, present. Additionally the curriculum aims to support agricultural professionals to play a role in preventing occupational illness and injury through increased health literacy. METHODS: It is five years since the course was introduced into Australia. Quantitative data were collected from students who had completed the AH&M unit to determine · changes in students attitudes · self‐reported behavioral changes as a result of completing the course · if students found the course to be professionally valuable · the level of knowledge retention since taking the course in terms of major course concepts/objectives Data was also collected from students in the USA who had completed the UoI program in the same period[3]. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, frequencies and the chi‐square test to consider similarities and differences RESULTS: Over 90% of the Australian students agreed the course improved their ability to diagnose, prevent and treat farming populations. Over 80% of past students were working in rural communities[4]. The AH&M course addressed in a disciplined method the health of a population with documented need and is in line with growing societal expectations that health professionals are knowledgeable about specific population based issues. CONCLUSIONS: To address ongoing health disparities globally action is required to ensure health care providers are culturally competent to work in agricultural communities, health literacy is increased in the agricultural professions and global translation and implementation of AH&M a high priority.