James W Remington
$98,444
Janelle Rios
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
Texas
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
The Texas-Utah Consortium will address an immediate and critical need to prevent or reduce occupational exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Composed of dedicated experts in medicine, public health, industrial hygiene, epidemiology and education, the Texas-Utah Consortium advances the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Training Program's objective to reduce work- related harm and improve disaster preparedness and response. The Texas-Utah Consortium serves as a resource for workers, responders, and residents across the country with a targeted focus on the population of United States Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Regions 5, 6, and 8. In this supplemental application, the Consortium proposes to reduce and prevent occupational exposures to COVID-19 in workers responding to the pandemic and in workers returning to the physical worksite. The Consortium will accomplish this by creating a portfolio of online training courses that are practical, specific, rooted in sound public health principles, and based on current scientific knowledge relating to COVID-19. The Consortium places special emphasis on training workers in the essential services that are critical to maintaining the nation's infrastructure. Additionally, this training is responsive to the changing needs of employees returning to the physical worksite. Consortium experts will work with instructional developers to adjust current curricula and create new course content in response to current crisis standards and stockpile shortages. Building on past successes and using evidence-based teaching techniques, the Consortium projects training about 500 workers within a 10-week project period. The public health impact of the Texas-Utah Consortium is a knowledgeable workforce and community with the skills and confidence to recognize and mitigate COVID-19 exposures in the workplace.