Extending a helping hand: Tick and tickborne disease education for extension professionals

Cooperative Extension is a critical partner in community engagement and education, particularly in rural settings. Because its employees and volunteers are trusted experts in a variety of topics, their potential role in disseminating vector-borne disease prevention information should be explored. As a first step, we designed an online, module-based tick and tick-borne disease education course for extension professionals and volunteers. Participants completed a pre-survey on their knowledge, attitudes, and personal practices related to ticks and tick-borne disease prior to taking the course. Approximately one months after completion of the training modules, participants were emailed a post-training survey to reassess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices. This talk will discuss the training’s effectiveness by reviewing results from these surveys and introduce next steps for involving Extension in the fight against tickborne disease in rural settings.