Author: nayavill

Surveys, Lattes, and Clinical Days Part Two: The Reckoning

Posted on by nayavill

Everything was perfect. I was building the surveys, practicing the lattes, and preparing for clinical days. Then the house of cards that was my summer felt a light gust and fell apart. That is a wildly exaggerated metaphor but keep an open mind. I spent much of my summer dividing my time between the three jobs of being a barista, a student, and a biostatistics intern. Three jobs may sound like too much work… and it was.

Over the past two months I have been working with Dr. Jessica Keys to prepare a database for a clinical trial with the UNC Center For Aids Research. Much thought went into the structure of the electronic case report forms or eCRFs that we were creating. Aside from coding and translating forms, most of the meetings with my preceptor involved brainstorming rather than hands-on work to discuss the sequence in which the forms would be filled out and how that would influence the coding within each form. For example, many of the forms had redundant information such as date of birth or height. So, we used coding to fill in the redundant information automatically by transferring the data from one form to another. Overall, the practicum gave me my first experience with creating a database and my first practical experience in biostatistics. My preceptor stressed all the best practices that one can do to make the data analyst’s job more efficient. For instance, one should export the data early in the process to see how it looks and adjust the forms if needed. Other tips included keeping the number of variables small if possible and create self-explanatory variables to make the data analysis more user-friendly. More important than the lessons I learned, I am now able to use REDCap and plan to learn more biostatistics skills to explore other positions in the future.

Evidence of brainstorming

What did I do when I wasn’t creating digital surveys? I finished training as a barista in March and will continue to work 20 hours a week indefinitely. Creating lattes is a nice break from academics and I enjoy learning about all the special types of coffee that exist. It’s crazy how many ways there are to make coffee. And something I have learned this summer is that it is essential to have something built into your schedule that allows you to relax.

Inside the coffee shop.
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1379/8821/files/cafes-drmwood_0000s_0001_Layer_22_6167444c-37a4-4027-8e36-b289fed3227e.jpg?v=1644962612)

Finally, I took an EMT course. The lectures were 16 hours a week at night and all-day Saturday, but I was glad to be busy this summer. Unfortunately, I failed one of the last exams in the course and had to stop two weeks before completing the class! But on the other hand, I worked one emergency department shift before failing and had the chance to practice a lot of what I learned during the semester.

I set up a lot of IVs during my ER shift. (https://www.carygastro.com/uploads/blog/_1200x720_crop_center-center_100_none/Infusion-Therapy.jpg)

I admit that I was greedy. I tried to work 40 hours a week while taking night classes rather than prioritizing the EMT course, but I still debate whether I should commit to studying or continue to serve coffee to relax. For now, I will be on the streets of Durham if anyone needs CPR, a latte, or a database.

Until Next Time!

Posted on by nayavill
Beach Day in Wrightsville, NC

It’s me again! I can’t believe how fast this summer has gone. As I reflect on my summer and my work with UNC Zambia Hub as their intern, I realize all the experience I have gained with literature analysis, dissemination, and writing! In my last blog post, I talked about how I was helping with a systematic review to help identify risk factors for HIV acquisition during pregnancy and breastfeeding in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, I also started work on the Hub’s secondary analysis assessing the impact of different HIV testing strategies on couples HIV testing. I was tasked with drafting the introduction for this paper which involved researching studies that have tested uptake of couples HIV testing and synthesizing that information. From this task I learned about how integral couples HIV testing can be prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. This work further emphasized how the health of a child does not only fall on the shoulders of the mother but the father as well. My internship experience, as a whole, has given me a wealth of knowledge and experience working in research, which is exactly what I hoped to gain. More specifically, I sharpened my writing skills, expanded research techniques, and made great connections with leaders at UNC Zambia Hub.

The next step for me will be completing my master’s thesis for my Maternal and Child Health concentration which I hope to write, in some capacity, on the topic of mother-to-child HIV transmission. I also hope to finish my 2nd year in the MPH program strong and graduate in May 2023. From there I want work on research that produces solutions, and then actively implement and evaluate these solutions as it relates to maternal and child health. Until next time! 🙂

Jasmine

A Public Health Lens at Peace Corps’ Office of Global Health and HIV

Posted on by nayavill
Enjoying a water taxi on vacation this summer in Geneva, Switzerland – home of the World Health Organization.

It’s already the end of the summer and my practicum experience! I am proud of what I am finishing up for the United States Peace Corps in the Office of Global Health and HIV, a literature review and an implementation guide for Peace Corps Volunteers working towards the prevention of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug use among adolescents.

Over the course of the summer, I have been contemplating how my personality interacts with public health work. As an anthropology major in college, I am accustomed to thinking on big-picture levels and I tend to come away with the “big idea” rather than with details. I’m used to thinking, “How can I make it as easy as possible for anyone, including myself, to take away the main point?” Sometimes, including in my projects for Peace Corps this summer, I have to remind myself that my work in public health has to cite specific research and statistics; the distinguishing mark of public health is that everything we do is grounded in evidence. As we have seen in the COVID pandemic, maintaining the credibility of the public health field is crucial to ensuring the public’s willingness to engage in health interventions.

One of the highlights of the summer was having

the opportunity to speak with a couple of Peace Corps posts (offices operating at the national level that receive Peace Corps Volunteers for their respective countries), including Moldova and Albania. Those meetings helped me focus my literature review because they gave me a better sense of the on-the-ground lens. I returned to my drafts after those meetings and realized some parts needed more specificity and others were irrelevant. I believe this is another important lesson in public health; one has to be able to operate on the community level while keeping the local level in mind. Ultimately, even though we work on a population level, we are still improving individual lives. I suspect I will continue to learn how to manage that balance throughout my public health career.

As I finish up with the Peace Corps, I am excited to start the final year of my Master of Public Health in Maternal, Child, and Family Health. I will be in this year’s cohort of the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. I will also continue an internship that I started this summer with the Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative, for which I am on a team creating a research repository on infant and young child feeding in emergency settings (link: https://www.ennonline.net/ife/iycferepository). I am enormously grateful to Salwan, my supervisor at Peace Corps this summer, for her inspiring and patient mentorship and for renewing my interest in global health promotion.

Clara