Healthy Skin: Cancer Education for School Teachers and Nurses Using a “Train and Equip” Method

Abstract

Skin cancer, especially malignant melanoma, continues on the increase. Different interventions are attempting to impact on this problem. The approach used by the Partners in Health Sciences program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science is to both “train” and, importantly, “equip” classroom teachers and school nurses in a “Healthy Skin” professional development curriculum. Each participant not only received face-to-face interactive content training in a workshop setting that lasted 6 h; each also received a resource kit of supplies, materials, and equipment used in the workshop and designed for the trainee to use with students in a classroom/school setting. This single “hit” professional development event then can be replicated by each trainee annually for the span of her/his teaching/school-nursing career. A total of 588 trainees participated in “Healthy Skin” workshops that were held in 17 communities throughout the state. Participants attended from 188 different towns/cities. Of those in attendance, 511 (87 %) were females, 77 (13 %) males, 81 % Caucasian, 16 % African Americans, and the remaining 3 % self-identified as “other”. There were 471 teachers, 85 nurses, and 32 “others” (administrators, school counselors). Trainees completed anonymous pre/post test measures with an increase in knowledge of 28.5 %. A short-term evaluation was conducted at the end of the workshop. After a minimum of 6 months had elapsed, a long-term evaluation was used to capture data on how the workshop experience transferred into new curricular/learning activities for the students of the workshop participants. There was a high level of satisfaction with the workshop experience and use of workshop content and resource kits. Our experiences in this type of professional development outreach provide a model of how institutions of higher education could contribute to the professional development of K-12 teachers and their students in any content area.