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John R Wheat

Publications and source records attributed to John R Wheat.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Agromedicine focus group: cooperative extension agents and medical school instructors plan farm field trips for medical students.

BACKGROUND: Current medical education policy seeks to address the health care needs of underserved populations, among whom are individuals associated with agriculture. METHODS: This paper describes a focus group approach to planning farm field trips whereby medical students accompany agricultural extension agents to study the personal, occupational, and environmental health concerns of farmers. RESULTS: The resulting plan joins a state's cooperative extension system, medical school, and farm community in partnership to provide an experiential approach to agricultural medicine and rural health education. CONCLUSION: The planning exercise and the field trips are successful examples of agromedicine, a partnership approach to preventive agricultural medicine involving professionals in medicine and in agriculture.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2003

Premedical education: the contribution of small local colleges.

CONTEXT: Small local colleges may be sources of medical students with the gender, ethnicity, and background that promote identity with and empathy for underserved populations. PURPOSE: This study examined the impact of attendance at these premedical colleges on outcomes of medical education. METHODS: Data for 2508 matriculates to the University of Alabama School of Medicine, a state-supported medical school, were examined according to premedical colleges attended. FINDINGS: Medical students who had graduated from small local colleges were more diverse in gender, race, and rural background than other students. They had slightly lower academic performance in medical school, were more likely to drop out (10.6% versus 5.3% overall), and were more likely to locate in rural areas of the host state. CONCLUSIONS: Small local colleges may be rich sources of student diversity and medical students who choose rural practice, outcomes that are gained at a cost in terms of drop-out rate. Compared with other students, minor differences in performance and larger differences in the drop-out rate raise the question of cultural context and social support during medical school as points for intervention.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Strategy to increase agricultural medicine practice: an exploratory study to predict interest among generalists.

Across the nation, farmers, farmworkers and their families experience an increased risk of death, illness and disability. A major concern is to determine how medical education and the medical profession can realize their potential to benefit the agricultural community. This exploratory study was completed to identify factors that might predict interest in practice of agricultural medicine among primary care physicians. Two hundred seventy-eight Alabama primary care physicians, almost equally distributed as urban and rural, completed a questionnaire that surveyed interest in agromedicine practice, experience regarding 13 agromedicine topics, and other physician characteristics. Through a logistic regression model, interest in agromedicine practice was predicted by a high proportion of practice experience in smaller communities, agromedicine experience through personal hobby or avocation, and through professional literature. These three significant variables correctly predicted a moderate to high level of interest in agromedicine practice in 65% of the physicians in the study. If these results hold up with confirmatory study, the authors recommend that targeted efforts to produce physicians for agricultural medicine should prepare physicians whose backgrounds are rural and whose interests include agricultural and family medicine, thus predicting location and practice relevant to the needs of the agricultural community.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2002

Preventive agricultural medicine: a student's perspective of farmers' mental health.

As a medical student completing a required rural community medicine clerkship, I discovered my home community's concern for mental health of farmers. A local economic downturn affects everyone, but especially the farmers. One farmer had recently committed suicide. Leaning heavily on work presented at a Nebraska summit on the farm crisis and mental health and on the National Rural Health Association issue paper on rural mental health, I found farmer and rural mental health to be a widespread concern, exacerbated by a scarcity of rural mental health resources. In my recommendations for rural Alabama, I endorse recommendations of others, including strengthening the local family physician role as "front door" to the mental health system, outreach with such agents as extension personnel and ministers, and farm crisis hotlines.

Journal Article↗