Associate Professor Dr. Azita Azmiri, UAH College of Nursing
Michael Mercier | UAH
The University of Alabama (UAH) is part of the University of Alabama System. UAH has announced that Castner Incorporated and its consortia partners Emory University, Washington State University, have partnered with Castner Incorporated to receive a $1,000,000 National Institute of Healths National Institute Environmental Health Sciences grant for environmental health research training.
The grant covers a five-year train-the-trainer program called EHRINCS. This stands for Environmental Health Research Institute of Nurse and Clinician Scientists. The program will be comprised of 144 faculty members, scientists, educators, and others who aim to create the next generation in environmental health nurse scientist.
UAH was first involved in this project through Dr. Azita Azmiri, an Associate Professor in UAH’s College of Nursing.
Dr. Amiri explains that I have been working in the environmental health research area for the past 10 years. I have studied indoor air pollution and its effects on pregnancy outcomes. This includes low birthweight and the effects of outdoor pollution, specifically particulate matter 2.5 on asthma, cardiovascular disease and mortality rates. Although the environment plays a crucial role in human and animal health, nurses rarely focus on environmental health research and practice. To help nurses learn more about environmental health, a group of nurses who are interested in this topic is connected through the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. I was co-chair of the ANHE research forum, and I am now a board member.
The grant-winning project was developed by ANHE in order to fulfill the vital goal that nurses and clinicians are trained about environmental health.
Dr. Amiri says that environmental health plays an important role in our health. However, our understanding of it is limited. Dr. Amiri explains that nurses and other clinicians have to investigate these relationships and consider how they can apply the evidence in their own practices. My role is to offer training and information on health disparities and at risk populations. This is due to my previous work in Alabama with pregnant women, children, and communities of environmental justice. My responsibilities include training nurses in the measurement and interpretation of indoor air pollution. My lab at the College of Nursing has a positive pressure cleanroom as well as indoor air measurement tools. It is a great place for relevant studies and training others.
Each year, the EHRI-NCS enrolls a new cohort. The program includes self-paced, online courses, a workshop that lasts one week, and mentorship support.
Dr. Amiri states that this grant is for five years. Due to pandemics, the first cohort will be entirely online. However, we hope to have it in person at Emory or Washington State University in subsequent years.
Over the years, the location of the intensive workshop will change between online-only Atlanta, GA. and Niagara Falls, NY.; and Spokane WA. This program is for clinician scientist participants who have completed at minimum six credits of graduate work. They educate, train, and mentor registered nurses in research careers.
Jessica Castner (President of Castner Incorporated) is the project’s PI. The EHRI–NCS is entirely participant-centered. The course basics are available online for everyone to access at their own pace. The program is focused entirely on the participant’s goal, whether it’s creating a new center, course, academic program, research project, policy, or adding an environmental health variable to their work. It is as if each participant has the keys to unlock any door that they desire. The program is designed so that participants can have the support and depth to make the most of whatever new learning opportunities they choose to make. The most important requirement for success is curiosity.
Dr. Amiri noted that UAH is among the many partners in this project. Each institute has at least one nurse faculty that is a nationally recognized nurse scientist in environmental health. UAH has me as its faculty expert. This project is led by Dr. Jessica Castner. She and I were co-chairs of ANHE’s research forum a few decades ago. That is how we met. Dr. Castner took the initiative and brought together several nurse experts in environmental healthcare to work on this project. I am honored to be named as one of the environmental health nurse experts, to network with incredible nurses across the nation for UAH, and to participate in this project.
The EHRI-NCS was born out of successful collaborations within the ANHEs Research Workgroup. The program provides innovative information and scientific information to nurses in all settings, including rural, suburban, and urban.
Dr. Amiri is particularly hopeful about the potential of this training in terms of impacting the healthcare sector as a whole.
She says that people pay more attention to environmental factors and chronic diseases these days, especially for children’s health. But it can be tricky to study environmental factors and their impact on chronic diseases. A single study will not lead to robust conclusions. We need to do multiple studies to reach solid conclusions. Many environmental factors have silent and long-lasting effects on our health. Most of the time, however, we don’t notice these effects.
For example, cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders, such asattention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism,diabetes, Parkinson’s, you name it, are all related to various environmental exposure, based on the current evidence. Research in this area is expanding.
