Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111674

Judith A. Daltuva, MSW, MA¹, Katherine R. King, PE, MS¹, Luis A. Vazquez, MPH², Michelle Kaminski, Ph D³, and Thomas G. Robins, MD, MPH¹. (1) Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734 936 0756, jdal@umich.edu, (2) UAW Health & Safety Department, 8000 East Jefferson Ave, Detroit, MI 48214, (3) Labor Education Program, Michigan State University School of Labor & Industrial Relations, 413 S Kedzie Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824-1032

Storytelling provides an innately fascinating and portable structure to share complex health and safety knowledge. Worker participants in the United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers Union (UAW) participatory training programs frequently remark that the shared health and safety stories of other worker participants are a vital component to the training. Capturing these stories for use in future training sessions, however, has proven difficult during a dynamic and fast moving training session. This presentation reports on the findings from an ongoing study on the use of workers real-life stories in health and safety training and in evaluation of training outcomes. We will report on the benefits and drawbacks to various methods used to collect and analyze stories, including the use of focus groups, one-on-one interviews, storytelling workshops, video and audio taping of training sessions, and weblogs. The presentation will also report on the use of story as a training evaluation tool. Lastly, the presentation will discuss the range of story themes and structures, and the stories that health and safety workers find most useful as they train others or conduct their day-to-day activities.

Learning Objectives: