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Bonnie Rogers,¹ Leyla Erk McCurdy,² Katie Slavin,³ Kimberly Grubb,² and James R. Roberts⁴

¹School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; ²National Environmental Education Foundation, Washington, DC, USA; ³American Nurses Association, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA; ⁴Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Abstract
Background: Pediatric medical and nursing education lack the environmental health content needed to properly prepare health care professionals to prevent, recognize, manage, and treat environmental exposure–related diseases. The need for improvements in health care professionals’ environmental health knowledge has been expressed by leading institutions. However, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of programs that incorporate pediatric environmental health (PEH) into curricula and practice.

Objective: We evaluated the effectiveness of the National Environmental Education Foundation’s (NEEF) Children’s Environmental Health Faculty Champions Initiative, which is designed to build environmental health capacity among pediatric health care professionals.

Methods: Twenty-eight pediatric health care professionals participated in a train-the-trainer workshop, in which they were educated to train other health care professionals in PEH and integrate identified PEH competencies into medical and nursing practice and curricula. We evaluated the program using a workshop evaluation tool, action plan, pre- and posttests, baseline and progress assessments, and telephone interviews.

Results: During the 12 months following the workshop, the faculty champions’ average pretest score of 52% was significantly elevated (p < 0.0001) to 65.5% on the first posttest and to 71.5% on the second posttest, showing an increase and retention of environmental health knowledge. Faculty champions trained 1,559 health care professionals in PEH, exceeding the goal of 280 health care professionals trained. Ninety percent of faculty champions reported that PEH had been integrated into the curricula at their institution.

Conclusion: The initiative was highly effective in achieving its goal of building environmental health capacity among health care professionals. The faculty champions model is a successful method and can be replicated in other arenas.

Key words: children, education, environmental health, medicine, medical schools, nursing, nursing schools, pediatrics. Environ Health Perspect 117:850–855 (2009) . doi:10.1289/ehp.0800203 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 5 December 2008]

Address correspondence to L.E. McCurdy, National Environmental Education Foundation, 4301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 160, Washington, DC 20008 USA. Telephone: (202) 261-6488. Fax: (202) 261-6464. E-mail: mccurdy@neefusa.org

This study was supported by grant USEPA-AO-OCHP-04-03 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Children’s Health Protection. Additional funding was provided by New York Community Trust and Baxter Healthcare.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 18 September 2008 ; accepted 4 December 2008.