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The University of Iowa began training health care professionals to care for farmers’ occupational health needs since 1974. In order to geographically expand this training to practicing health and safety professionals, the “Building Capacity: A National Resource of Agricultural Medicine Professionals” program was developed and launched in 2006. The model began in 1987 as a program of Iowa’s Center for Agricultural Safety and Health. In 2006, with funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (GPCAH), the program was expanded beyond the Iowa borders. The principal component of the program, the 40-hour course,Agricultural Medicine: Occupational and Environmental Health for Rural Health Professionals—the Core Course(AMCC) is now being offered to health and safety professionals in nine states in the United States, in Australia, and a modified version presented in Turkey. An initial paper evaluated the first phase of the program, years 2007–2010. This paper compares the first phase (2007–2010) with the second phase (2011–2013), which has involved over 500 health and safety professionals. This paper also describes evaluation of the course and changes resulting from the evaluation. Finally, this paper describes best practices for operating this program and makes recommendations for future courses, as well as other trainings within the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1987 the University of Iowa began training health care professionals to care for farmers' occupational health needs. The training enables health professionals from various disciplines to function in the anticipation, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of occupational illnesses and injuries in the farm community. A grant from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) entitled 'Building Capacity for Health and Safety Professionals' allowed for the expansion of this training to other states. This paper describes the challenges, successes, and lessons learned from dissemination of Agricultural Medicine Core Course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]