University of Iowa student Ms. Amanda Swanton was recently named the winner of the 2014 International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health (ISASH) student member award.

Ms. Swanton’s work involved an examination of the time it takes for injured agricultural workers using Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to reach a trauma facility capable of treating their injuries. Ms. Swanton and colleagues from the University of Iowa College of Public Health’s Injury Prevention Research Center and Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health found that farmers took a median of 20 minutes longer to reach care compared to other workers. This delay in trauma care remained significant when adjusted for age, sex, injury severity, injury type, rurality, and time of injury.

Ms. Swanton says future work will focus on identifying phases of the trauma response (e.g. EMS notification, arrival, care at scene, transport) that contribute to this delay.