At Palestine ranch, UT Tyler School of Medicine students learn about health and hazards agriculture workers face

Published 5:40 am Monday, November 18, 2024

PALESTINE — On a cool Wednesday morning, UT Tyler School of Medicine second-year students listened to John Reed and Marie Reed, owners of Reed Ranch, as they explained the risks agricultural workers face.

The agriculture sector — which includes forestry, logging, farming, ranching and commercial fishing — has high rates of fatalities.

“We have some of the highest injury and fatality rates of any other sector across the U.S.,” said Vanessa Casanova, UT Tyler School of Medicine Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Director of the Southwest Center for Agriculture Health, Injury Prevention and Education.

However, the high rates do not show the full picture. Businesses with less than 10 employees are not required to report injuries. Many times farms are owned by families and injuries go unreported.

The average age of farmers and ranchers are late 50s to 60s. In addition to having an aging population in Northeast Texas, there is a shortage of doctors. In an effort to expose the students to the realities of the health needs of East Texas, the second-year students came to the Reed Ranch.

“Part of the mission of the school is to train our future providers, but then also not just train them, but hopefully keep them here in East Texas, where there is a great need, and hopefully this prepares them for dealing with the population that lives in northeast Texas,” Casanova said.

The Reeds welcomed the eight students at their ranch in Palestine.

“We don’t get a lot of road traffic. We’re the only house down this road, and so if people are coming down here, they’re either checking their pastures, or they’re coming to see us, or they’re lost,” Marie said.

Wearing a denim vest over a plaid long sleeve shirt and a wide-brimmed hat, John climbs into the hay tedder, one of multiple machines the Reeds use on their ranch. He throws a bag behind him as students watch. The bag is swept by the machine. John does this a few more times with different bags to demonstrate how dangerous the machine can be.

In addition, tools can break or clothes can get caught in machines causing accidents. As a nurse, Marie saw the accidents first-hand.

“Working in ER and working in OR, I saw the end result of trauma, and it didn’t take me long to figure out, a lot of this could be prevented.” Marie said.

Marie is passionate about proper safety. She has previously worked with the Southwest Ag Center in various formats. When they reached out to them about the site visits, she felt comfortable having the students come visit due to her prior relationship with the center.

Some of the unique health challenges agricultures face include skin cancer and hearing loss. Marie has osteoarthritis.

Agricultural workers are often out in the sun for hours which increases their risk of skin cancer. To combat this, John and Marie wear wide-brimmed hats to reduce sun exposure and sunscreen.

Marie grew up in the city while John grew up in the country. When John was younger, taking safety precautions was not the norm.

“My husband … has gotten very faithful about wearing hearing protection and his seat belt … When he was a child, that was not the culture. So the culture, at least on this farm, is helped somewhat by my nursing background,” Marie said.

As part of their Population Health System Science class, the students received the opportunity to visit the ranch along with five other sites to learn about health issues in Northeast Texas. The other sites were: a sawmill, a federally qualified health clinic, a rural hospital and a local health department.

The Reeds have welcomed a total of five groups of students. Having the students around has been “refreshing,” said Marie.

“It’s been almost like having your grandchildren around because they’re young, compared to us,” Marie said.

The students are able to ask questions and learn about the lived experiences of agriculture workers. Marie hopes they are able to take this visit and apply what they learned in the future as doctors in East Texas.

“It’s just helpful for them to have a background on their patients,” Marie said. “But the patients will really admire and respect a doctor who’s taken time to learn about their lifestyle.”

Stokke found her second visit to the farm rewarding. “It’s been amazing,” Stokke said.

Learning about the potential accidents that can happen when operating heavy machinery taught Stokke there is more to public health than a specific disease. It goes farther and includes trauma, said Stokke.

“It also makes you think about if someone was injured, we’re out in the middle of nowhere. I can’t think of how you could actually stabilize the patient and get them to safety, or to an emergency room without them being legitimately injured,” Stokke said.

Stokke helped write a mini white paper researching how trauma injuries are impacted by time. While researching, she found there was not much research on East Texas.

“It’s not a huge interest for many people, but real people live here, and they can be hurt,” Stokke said. “So I think it’s important to start to prioritize smaller communities like this, because they’re just as important as other communities.”

Stokke wants to stay and practice medicine in Tyler. She did her undergraduate degree at UT Tyler.

“It’s motivated me to stay in the area and not only practice here and commit to them, but commit more to learning about what they do,” Stokke said.