Firefighter Occupational Cancer Risk: Starting the Conversation

This study was conducted to determine if an educational session would increase the firefighter's knowledge of their occupational cancer risk and increase their motivation and confidence to have a conversation with their primary care provider (PCP) in regard to their occupational cancer risk. This study was an exploratory descriptive interventional pilot study. Firefighters self-reported using a pre-/post-educational intervention survey. Results were analyzed using a paired t test in IBM SPSS Version 23 to compare the pre-/post-test mean scores. There were statistically significant differences noted in the mean scores of the pre-/post-interventional survey tool. It seems an educational intervention can motivate and increase the firefighter's confidence to have a conversation with their PCP in regard to their occupational cancer risk. Firefighter perceptions of their "lived" care experience at the PCP level shared during study sessions also contributed to some key conclusions. These conclusions lead to the development of an informational wallet card for the firefighter to use as a conversational tool during a visit with their PCP. Motivating firefighters to have a conversation with their PCP in regard to their occupational cancer risk could potentially increase firefighter occupational cancer awareness at the PCP level and result in earlier detection of cancers in firefighters leading to decreased firefighter cancer mortality rates. Increasing informed firefighter conversations at the PCP level in regard to their occupational cancer risk could potentially increase appropriate cancer prevention guidance and earlier cancer screenings at the primary care level.