Central Appalachian Regional Education Research Center (Occup. Health Nurs. Scope)

ERC Summary: The Central Appalachian Regional Education and Research Center (CARERC) will train occupational health professionals in graduate and continuing education for the three-year period of July 2012 through June 2015. This is a newly proposed ERC, for graduate education in six programs through three colleges on the University of Kentucky (UK) campus and one college on the Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) campus. The colleges supporting CARERC on the UK campus include: the College of Public Health (Occupational Medicine Residency, MPH and PhD in Occupational Epidemiology and Injury, and MPH in Agricultural Safety and Health); the College of Nursing (PhD in Occupational Nursing); and the College of Engineering (MS and PhD in Mine Safety and Health). The college on the EKU campus that will be supporting CARERC is the College of Justice and Safety (MS in Occupational Safety). The Targeted Research Training (TRT) will involve faculty and students in all academic programs but with a focus on the mining and health care employment sectors. Our region is the central Appalachian area which includes counties in eastern Kentucky, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, and southern West Virginia. CARERC will collaborate with other regional institutions in this region in its Pilot Research Program (PRP), outreach, and collaborative research programs to develop research skills among students and junior faculty. CARERC will also collaborate with industry, labor, and government to provide a Continuing Education program across many occupational safety and health disciplines. The primary objectives of CARERC are to: 1) provide interdisciplinary occupational health and safety education for graduate students and occupational medicine residents; 2) develop student research skills; 3) conduct interdisciplinary research on a variety of occupational diseases and injuries; 4) deliver continuing education, consultation and outreach to address environmental and occupational safety and health concerns; 5) translate our research and the research of others into practice to prevent injury and disease. Our goal is to provide support for trainees across the core programs. We anticipate providing continuing education programs to train several hundred professionals annually. Workplace injuries, fatalities, and diseases continue to plague the U.S. labor force and they are especially important in the industries of Appalachia. Especially during difficult economic times the nation needs to reduce its health care costs while increasing productivity. These problems are particularly acute in the Appalachian region. CARERC is prepared to help reduce these problems in our region.