My name is Enioluwaduroti Johnson, I am a second-year MPH student in the maternal, child and family health concentration. As a medical doctor and an aspiring pediatrician from Nigeria, I knew that I wanted a practicum that was globally focused to low- and middle-income countries. My practicum is at the University Of North Carolina, Gillings Zambia Hub. This is an organization with a mission to partner with Zambia to address urgent global health challenges.
My practicum organization is working on analyzing and disseminating data from a formative research project focused on infant care and feeding practices among families affected by HIV. The project has conducted qualitative research to examine the feasibility and acceptability of engaging male partners, grandmothers, and other family members to support HIV-positive mothers in Lusaka to practice recommended infant care and feeding practices, and women for continued antiretroviral therapy adherence.
My practicum project involves participating in qualitative data analysis and preparing findings to share with key stakeholders in Zambia. I am working with the team on using qualitative analysis software ATLAS.TI to code the responses from the interviews that took place in Lusaka. I will also be creating dissemination materials with research findings for different audiences.
For my practicum, I wanted to work somewhere that focused on work involving mothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa. This was in accordance with my career goals of improving the lives of people in that population and in that region. My goals for my practicum included learning a skill, which I am doing by learning and using the ATLAS.TI software for my research analysis and coding. Another goal I had was to do something out of my comfort zone, I wanted to be stretched mentally and academically and I believe that this practicum is going to provide me with that experience.
My practicum has been amazing so far!!! My preceptor and teammates have been welcoming and helpful. I look forward to our weekly meetings where I learn so much from everyone. I am also looking forward to learning how to use the organizational network analysis software after coding the transcripts. It has been an interesting learning experience and I am excited to see it unfold.
Thank you for reading.
Have great summer!
-Enioluwaduroti