Building Environmental Health and Genomics Literacy among Healthcare Providers Serving Vulnerable Communities: An Innovative Educational Framework.

ABSTRACT: This study addresses healthcare providers' knowledge deficits in environmental health and genetics, and primarily focuses on student nurses and nurses serving marginalized, low-income communities frequently exposed to environmental toxicants. Our approach to improve public health is unique, combining hands-on modeling exercises with case-based lessons in addition to three targeted 40 min lectures on toxicology. These lectures included the team's community-based environmental health research among Indigenous peoples of the U.S. The hands-on approach employed DNA and protein molecular models designed to demonstrate normal and dysfunctional molecules, as well as genetic variants in world populations. The models provided learners with visuals and an experience of "learning by doing." Increased

SUBMITTER: Vandiver KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8776035 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature