Unique Illinois training program prepares nurses for agricultural emergencies

ORANGEVILLE, Ill. (WTVO) — Future nurses spent Friday on the farm, learning about the unique challenges rural communities face.

The program is part of farmer Mark Baker’s Stateline Farm Rescue, an organization that trains firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders for agricultural rescues.

Baker started the program 35 years ago to address what he saw as a lack of specialized care.

“There was quite a need for this, really,” he said. “The lack of training that our fire services and our EMS here are getting and it’s just not that’s not their fault. It’s just that they don’t have the resources to do so. And that’s what we bring to the table. We actually specialize in agricultural training.”

Stateline Farm Rescue also educates students on mental health treatment as well, since the National Rural Health Association says farmers are among the most likely to die by suicide, compared to other occupations.

Second-year nursing student Marshal Pack said he hopes to play a part in solving the issue.

“I would love to have patients from the rural community because I know that mental health is an issue because you are secluded, but also when you’re going to have a patient from a farm, they’re usually pretty messed up. But I think it’s cool to be able to help them when they’re most vulnerable,” Pack said.

Baker said he is still surprised by the impact that Stateline Farm Rescue has had in the past 30 years.

“The opportunity to save a life is the most rewarding thing ever. When you get a call back from a fire chief that was on a farm rescue, that the outcome was good and they got the victim out and the victim is going to be okay, and they’re going to go on in life and come back to the farm, that’s truly who we’re working for, working for the American farmers and their farm families and their neighbors. And that’s that’s who we’re trying to protect,” he said.

Baker added that a lack of first responders in rural communities adds to the challenge, with many volunteer fire departments desperate for help.

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