Future Is Farm Safety: A Safe Workplace Makes a Strong Workforce

You are here: Homepage > Search

Future Is Farm Safety: A Safe Workplace Makes a Strong Workforce

The NURSE program (Nurses Using Rural Sentinel Events) was intended to prevent work related injuries to agricultural workers and others exposed to hazards and associated with the agricultural industry. A link was formed between the reporting of fatal and severe injuries in the agricultural work place to investigations identifying potential risk factors, making recommendations for injury prevention, and facilitating onsite prevention programs. Injuries were reported to the program by a surveillance system which included hospitals, emergency medical services, clinics, and medical examiners. Interviews were conducted with workers, coworkers and employers, and onsite visits were made. Altogether, 35 different case reports were included. For each case, background information was provided, along with a description of the incident and preentive strategies, with summaries in Spanish. Cases included electrocutions, limb amputations, workers run over by tractors and farm equipment, tractor and farm equipment crush injuries, heavy equipment roll over, all terrain vehicle crash, lightning strikes, heat stroke, an exploding brake, spider bite, flying metal objects, explosion related burns, scalding, scalping, and falls.