Health Literacy & Education

A CLEAR NEED FOR BETTER HEALTH EDUCATION

[There are some that] don’t know how to read and write, and they don’t want to tell you that... You can put out the best brochures, but not everyone is able to read them.

7 IN 10 survey respondents disagreed with the statement, “All children in my community receive high-quality education.”

Responding With Resources

+ Education Outreach

Since 2005, Education Outreach (EO) has served the community and maintained Ochsner’s position as a global academic leader by supporting educational development, providing unique academic resources, and connecting K-12 students and teachers with innovative academic opportunities in STEM education and early workforce pipeline development.

Working with internal stakeholders that include Ochsner Diversity & Inclusion, Academics, Workforce Development and Research, programming is developed to increase equitable access to high-quality learning, connect classrooms to careers, drive student achievement and enhance STEM literacy.

Each year, this programming impacts around 10,000 participants with 150+ events, totaling 13,000+ hours of education for students and teachers.

For programs with a higher emphasis on STEM skills, students show a 57% increase in science knowledge, and 97% of teachers noted that Ochsner-led teacher professional development workshops provided ideas for making science relevant to students’ everyday lives.

96%

Since 2005 students have been reached, with mentorship hours.

50,000+ 20,000+ of students indicate a higher interest in pursuing a healthcare career after participation.

+ Ochsner Eat Fit

Ochsner Eat Fit is a non-profit initiative designed to help community members live their healthiest, strongest lives. Eat Fit dietitians work closely with restaurants, markets, food festivals and more to identify and develop dishes that meet the Eat Fit nutritional criteria. Since its creation in 2013, Eat Fit has been 100% free to all restaurants and food service partners.

Eat Fit CHOP: Kids in the Kitchen is a cooking program designed for kids ages 8–18. It provides culinary toolkits, recipes, workbooks and activities to local schools, camps, recreational departments and youth programs.

+ Discovery Schools

The Dr. John Ochsner Discovery (DJOD) Health Sciences Academy is a high-performing, openenrollment, tuition-free, K-8 charter school that prepares a diverse student body to succeed in life and pursue careers in the health sciences industry. Ochsner Health has made a significant investment in education through its partnership with Discovery Schools. The partnership started in 2019, with DJOD opening for students during the 2020-2021 school year.

Percentage of customers who believe restaurants have a responsibility to offer healthy options1

89.6% 91%

In 2021:

• 599 Eat Fit partners throughout Louisiana served 1.2 million Eat Fit meals.

• Of the Eat Fit partners in 2022, 86 were women-owned and 68 were minority-owned businesses.

• 12 schools featured Eat Fit options on their menus.

Percentage of customers who have said that having Eat Fitbranded menu options helped them make healthier food choices1

• Eat Fit presented 115 community events, including nutrition presentations and cooking demos.

• There were 12,000 virtual and 493 in-person participants for Eat Fit’s “Alcohol-Free for 40” challenge.

• Eat Fit CHOP served nearly 500 participants.

1 Restaurant-Based Programming to Improve Healthy Food Access: Eat Fit Program Impact and Factors that Influence Adoption. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Volume 54, July 2022.

+ Ochsner Health Speakers Bureau

The purpose of the Ochsner Health Speakers Bureau is to provide highquality health education to community organizations and business and government leaders throughout Louisiana. In 2021 and 2022, 73 Speakers Bureau events reached over 28,000 people in faith-based communities, social groups, and other non-traditional healthcare spaces.

According to the Louisiana STEM Initiative, over the next 12 years, Louisiana and the nation will see a surge in the number of job opportunities available in STEM fields. However, only 9% of Louisiana students met the ACT STEM College Readiness Benchmark, which reflects the likelihood of student success in STEM-related college outcomes.

This school will help prepare our kids for the future with a strong health sciences curriculum and a focus on STEM education. For the 2021-2022 school year, DJOD opened a brand-new, state-ofthe-art school campus just one mile away from Ochsner Medical Center – Jefferson Highway in the Shrewsbury community.

The new campus will allow us to grow to serve 742 pre-K through 8th grade students by 2023.

Ochsner and Discovery Schools are partnering to open Baton Rouge Ochsner Discovery Health Sciences Academy (BROD) in fall 2023.