Pediatric Environmental Home Assessment

Complete a pediatric environmental health history and recognize potential environmental hazards and sentinel illnesses as part of a primary prevention approach.
Recommend a course of preventative action or make appropriate referrals for conditions with probable environmental etiologies as appropriate for their discipline.

Incentives for Nurses to Complete the Training: The first 170 nurses to complete the training can choose a:

10% discount coupon on a moisture meter; or
Deluxe carbon monoxide alarm for the home (retails at $45); or
Easy-to-use lead dust wipe kit (retails at $32).

Review the Scenario

Hints to Complete Forms

Steps to Complete the Training Exercise: To complete the exercise, you need to:

Make sure you have a player such as Real Player, Winamp, or Windows Media Player to view the video clips.
Turn the sound up on your computer so you can hear the dialogue between the pediatrician and parent on the video clips.
Print out the PEHA Survey Form and Nursing Care Plan Form to use as a guide;
Review the PEHA_Scenario;
Watch five short videos (about 8 minutes total) of an actual home visit;
Review photos associated with each video;
Complete both parts of the PEHA Survey Form (Part 1 and Part 2); and
Complete all parts of the PEHA Nursing Care Plan (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) noting any action that you do not think should be done in this situation.
Complete the short evaluation form after finishing part 3 of the Nursing Care Plan (if you want continuing education units for the training, you must complete this form);
Compare your answers to our answers for the PEHA Survey.

Links to the on-line forms, photos, videos and other materials are in the box on the right. You can complete the materials on-line or fax a form that you complete by hand to Susan Aceti at 443.539.4153 or email it to her at saceti@nchh.org.

If you have questions about any of the topics, go to the Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioner course materials for more information.

The information may not necessarily be presented in the same order as is found on the form. For example, as you view the video clip for the kitchen you may observe information that applies to another section of the form (i.e. pests). As with most home visits, your observations do not always occur sequentially in keeping with your paperwork. You may need to view video clips more than once in order to capture all of the necessary observations.

Background on the Training: This exercise is based partly on a home visit done in Boston, MA. Special thanks to Mary White of the Boston Urban Asthma Coalition Strengthening Voices and Dr. Megan Sandel of the Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine. Parts of the exercise are from photos taken at home visits from other households. Some aspects of this case are fictionalized in order to facilitate the learning goals of the exercise. Aspects of this scenario are not necessarily reflective of an actual home shown in the video clips.

Thanks to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their funding and guidance for this project in support of public health nurse training.

10320 Little Patuxent Parkway, Suite 500 • Columbia, MD 21044
Phone: 410.992.0712 • Fax: 443.539.4150