University of Illinois College of Medicine-Rockford hosts “No Harm on the Farm”

(WIFR) – Medical students become farmers for a day at University of Illinois College of Medicine-Rockford’s “No Harm on the Farm.”

The event is meant to show the health and safety risks associated with modern agriculture.

Taylor Main-White is one of 23 students who toured Scheidairy and Mark Bakers farms Friday.

She has spent most of her life on a farm and that encouraged her to join UIC Medicine-Rockford’s Rural Medical Education Program.

“I saw at a very young age kind of how the disparities in rural health community’s work. They can’t get access to doctors or specialists’ things like that,” said Main-White.

“No Harm on the Farm” has been around for 19 years. At the Scheidairy farm students went through barns to learn about the day-to-day risks of being a farmer.

“Everything from hearing loss to exposure to chemicals and pesticides to working with livestock that may weigh 1,500 to 1,800 pounds to working with equipment that has a lot of moving parts,” said Mark Meurer, associate Director of Recruitment for RMED.

Between 2021-2022, there were 21,020 injuries in agricultural production that required employees to take days away from work according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scheidairy has been a part of the initiative since the beginning. Farmer Dan Scheider says it’s beyond important for students to experience a day on the farm to understand the profession and injuries that can occur.

“We work hard to provide relevant information about health and farming and how the two intersect,” said Scheider.

Experts say knowing how to prevent and treat injury and disease on the farm means a safer and more productive rural America.

One of the exercises students experienced included a grain bin entrapment/rescue demonstrations led by Mark Baker, founder of Stateline Farm Rescue Simulations and Demonstrations.

Meurer says no other program teaches students like RMED.

“Students love to do things with their hands. They love to do clinical things they love to do things where they are actually hands on in a learning environment,” said Meurer.

Main-White agrees and says everyone, no matter their profession, should experience a day like this.

“Usually everybody interacts with agriculture in one way or another, and so learning these safety things can really save someone’s life,” said Main-White.

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