1. Environmental Health Community Assessment Tool Robyn Gilden, RN, MS UMSON Environmental Health Education Center Greening the Nurse Curriculum January 14, 2009

2. Learning Objectives Describe the process of developing an assessment tool Identify topic areas for a community environmental health assessment tool Discuss lessons learned in the developing and piloting processes Identify additional sources of information and technical assistance available to nurses based on findings from a community environmental health assessment

3. Development Process Identified need Developed broad categories Generated questions under each category Edited internally Pilot tested Evaluated (Revision)

4. Environmental Health Community Assessment

5. Topic Areas Air  Air pollution  Transportation issues Water  Bodies of water  Drinking water  Fish alerts

6. Topic Areas: Land  Land use/Industry  Roads  Public transportation/walkability  Recreation area/green space  Pesticides  Fertilizers  Schools  Commuter lots/shopping areas  Housing stock  Vacant lots  Small businesses (gas stations, dry cleaners, auto repair)  Agriculture related issues

7. Topic Areas Waste  Landfills/incinerators  Trash collection, maintenance process  Illegal dumping  Odors  Rodents Safety  Violence  Drugs  Police and emergency service presence

8. Pilot Test Fall 2008 UG CH clinical group Upton community, Baltimore, MD 21217 Feedback:  Able to use tool for the most part  Didn’t know what some of the acronyms meant (CCR)  Couldn’t (easily) find some of the information (zoning enforcement)  Some questions did not apply for an urban setting (Ag issues)

9. Lessons Learned Need a lot of eyes General questions and subsets Students and practicing PH nurses are at different levels

10. Resources and Technical Assistance E-commons www.e-commons.org (coming soon!)www.e-commons.org EnviRN www.envirn.umaryland.eduwww.envirn.umaryland.edu Scorecard www.scorecard.orgwww.scorecard.org

11. Resources and Technical Assistance US EPA  Envirofacts www.epa.gov/enviro/www.epa.gov/enviro/  Tools for Schools www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/index.html www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/index.html  Office of Drinking Water www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html  Office of Children’s Health Protection yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/homepage.htm  Office of Pesticides www.epa.gov/pesticides/www.epa.gov/pesticides/  Office of Lead www.epa.gov/lead/www.epa.gov/lead/

12. Resources and Technical Assistance Local and State Level  Department of Environment Local fish advisories  Department of Health  Department of Natural Resources Soil Conservation Districts  Archives of local newspapers

13. Envirofacts

14. 21217

15. Scorecard

16. Questions? Robyn Gilden, RN, MS Program Manager University of Maryland School of Nursing Environmental Health Education Center (p) 410-706-4803/ (f) 410-706-0253 rgilden@son.umaryland.edu