OT students improve the wellness of agricultural workers

 Justine Bauer at a UMASH table for Minnesota Farmfest in 2022.

Through a partnership with the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH), occupational therapy (OT) students from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy are working to improve the wellness of farmers in the state. The collaboration began in 2020, starting with roundtable discussions with experts and Midwest farmers to determine the needs of agricultural workers. 

“What was gleaned from the discussion was that health professions and the services offered by them were oftentimes inaccessible to agricultural workers,” said Dr. Corey McGee, OT faculty capstone advisor. “The bulk of our work has been focused on helping to keep farmers safe, productive, and healthy as they age.”

Faculty in the OT program next created a fieldwork experience, “Aging on the Farm,” a six-session telehealth program for students to learn from individual farmers about their barriers to productivity and safety, along with their musculoskeletal symptoms. Students then offered strategies to address pain, improve balance and mobility, and enhance overall ability to engage in daily activities.

One hundred percent of the farmers who participated had reported changes in their daily activities due to aging-related problems, according to a UMASH evaluation report of the program. After completing the six sessions, 80% said they “felt better equipped to manage adverse changes and would recommend the program to others,” the report read. Students also created public webinars on YouTube introducing OT as a resource for farmers and demonstrating adaptive strategies and assistive technology that can help farmers mitigate low vision, hearing loss, aches and pains, arthritis, and memory loss as they get older.

Before participating, 60% of the farmers were unaware of occupational therapy, indicating the program helped boost visibility and accessibility of OT services in rural areas. The outcomes of this experience provided preliminary evidence to support that telehealth aids in expanding access to OT services in rural communities, McGee said. 

“I think our fieldwork students have certainly experienced that it is possible to successfully engage with people in rural communities through technology and this might have a meaningful impact on making our services— any health profession service— more accessible,” McGee said. 

Recent graduate Justine Bauer completed her capstone project on musculoskeletal issues among Midwestern crop farmers. Growing up, she spent a lot of time on her grandparents’ farm in southern Minnesota. As her grandfather aged, it became increasingly difficult for him to operate the same machinery and complete the same tasks, inspiring her to pursue the topic for her capstone experience. Working with UMASH, she engaged farmers by learning about their ergonomic risks through survey and on-site farm visits, then designing and delivering training and educational materials, with a goal of “providing meaningful, simple, and realistic ideas for Midwestern farmers to implement on the job to support their lower back health and improve their work performance so that they can work longer with less pain,” Bauer noted. She found that it was critical to consider the differences between individual farmers— the tasks they perform, the equipment they use, whether they have employees or not, and their physical work environment (e.g. terrain, at home, or off-site). 

“All of these differences may impact their risk of [musculoskeletal] issues and also the type and severity of symptoms they have,” Bauer said. “In addition, the concept of ‘wellness’ is defined differently by everyone. I think it’s important to understand what ‘wellness’ means to someone to get a better understanding of what their priorities are in order to tailor meaningful interventions and recommendations to their individual needs.”

Bauer’s training was delivered on the farm, at county fairs, and other regional agricultural events where UMASH commonly engages. Similar to the fieldwork educational materials, she developed farm ergonomics fact and tip sheets that are still in use by UMASH.  

“It certainly is an opportunity for our students to be impactful at an early stage in their development,” McGee said. “Here they are making a real-life impact before they're even a licensed practitioner.”