Maggie Schumacher

Context: Variable surface balance training is frequently used as a rehabilitative intervention.
Objective: To determine the effects of variable surface training on fall risk in the older adult and begin to explore evidence-based exercise parameters to drive clinical practice.
Study Selection: A search on PubMed and CINAHL in March 2016 resulted in 8 randomized control trials to include in this literature review.
Results: All studies reported statistically significant improvements on at least one outcome measure following variable surface training.
Conclusion: All health care professionals can refer older adults at risk for falls to physical therapy to help prevent falls before they occur.

Objectives: Student response teams within colleges of public health effectively address important concerns for two stakeholders. For universities, students learn the fundamentals of field epidemiology and provide popular training and networking opportunities. For health departments, students serve as surge capacity as trained workforce available during outbreak investigations and potentially for routine tasks. Study design: This paper describes the interaction between a student response team and several health departments utilizing specific examples to demonstrate the various roles and activities students can fulfill. Lessons learned from both University team leaders and the various health departments are also included. Methods: The program evolved over time, beginning with a needs assessment of local health departments and a determination of student training needs, collection, and confidential transmission of data, and interviewing techniques. Over the last decade students have worked on outbreak investigations, case-control studies, program evaluations, and in-field responses. Results: Since 2005, over 200 public health graduate students have contributed more than 1800 h investigating 62 separate disease outbreaks in Arizona. In addition, over the past four years students also worked an additional 2500 h to assist county health departments in routine enteric investigations, specifically for Campylobacter and Salmonella. Best practices and lessons learned found that communication, preplanning and a willingness to collaborate increased the learning opportunities for students and ability for health departments to increase their capacity both during an emergency and for routine work. Conclusions: Establishment of a student response team (1) trains students in field experiences; (2) creates trained surge capacity for health departments; (3) increases collaboration between schools of public health and state/local health departments; (4) establishes a way to share funding with a local health department; and (5) increases the number of students being placed in health departments for projects, internships, and jobs following graduation. (C) 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.