Category: 2021 Summer Blogs

Gratitude and Hope

Posted on by nayavill

As my practicum comes to an end and I reflect on the past three months, I am filled with so much gratitude. My practicum was not entirely what I expected but nonetheless, it was an experience that helped me grow as a public health professional and gave me insight into the field of global health in action. At the beginning of my practicum, I encountered some unforeseen challenges that stemmed from my lack of self-confidence. When given assignments and tasks with minimal instruction, I immediately thought, “How am I going to do this? Am I prepared for this?” I was terrified of doing a bad job and potentially letting someone down. In essence, I was doubting myself and my abilities. As I threw myself into my work, I quickly learned an important lesson: although I may not have all the answers, I have the skills to do this work. I had to remind myself that after a year of training through the MPH program, I have been equipped with a toolset of basic skills to get started with any task given to me. This realization gave me a life raft to keep me afloat through all the hard tasks and moments of doubt. Now, three months later, I am proud of the work I’ve done and have grown both personally and professionally through this experience.

A back porch bonfire with my roommates—a frequent tradition

Outside of my practicum work, life has been at a steady pace with many fun and memorable moments. Truly, the small things in life, such as back porch bonfires and long walks after work, are the sweetest! My favorite parts of the summer have been filled with self-care and time with friends and family. I am so thankful for the summer of 2021. Life is slowly becoming “normal” again and I am hopeful for a fun, fruitful school year to come!

-Paulina

Practicum Reflections in Preparation for the Start of Year 2

Posted on by nayavill

It seems crazy to think that we are all signed up for courses and getting ready for the second year to start. My practicum flew by and I am excited to have the opportunity to stay involved with the work as we start next semester. I am working with Kybele on a project called MEBCI 2.0 (Making Every Baby Count Initiative) which aims to improve quality of newborn care by using quality improvement, systems thinking/strengthening, and leadership trainings. Check out this paper to learn more about the first iteration of MEBCI! For my deliverables I am creating PowerPoint presentations and training manuals for (1) Models for Improvement and (2) PDSA (plan, do, study, act) for clinical providers in Ghana.

We were told from the start of practicum searching that there is no such thing as a “perfect practicum,” so I definitely feel like I lucked out. My work with Kybele, using quality improvement (QI) and systems thinking to improve neonatal and maternal outcomes, is exactly what I want to do in the future and gave me irreplaceable insights on the field. The best thing that came out of the practicum was being able to see the program design process from early on, from brainstorming competencies and training topics to drafting training materials. I’ll be working over the next few weeks to finalize these materials. Throughout, I have used materials from the Ghana Health Service and the National Healthcare Quality Strategy along with information from our project partners, mostly the American Academy of Pediatrics, in order to make sure that our trainings are the most relevant, usable, and built upon previous training experiences opposed to being redundant. I also spent a lot of time making sure that language was appropriate and consistent with materials that were already in circulation throughout the tertiary hospitals that Kybele is working within.

Although I was a little intimidated at the start of the practicum and felt like there was so much literature I needed to read in order to get myself speaking the same language as the team, I learn best by actively doing things and am grateful that the team allowed me to jump right into this project, consistently providing me with critical feedback along the way. It was also great to meet the team that I have been working with (in person!) before the practicum officially began and to have another Global Health student, Erin, working on the same MEBCI project. I’m excited to start next semester with this new perspective on program design and material development and look forward to continuing to work on similar projects in the Fall!

the best thing about practicums being remote? Getting to check off some major bucket list hikes/climbs, this is peak three of Olomana in Oahu!
The best thing about practicums being remote? Getting to check off some major bucket list hikes/climbs, this is peak three of Olomana in Oahu!

Hope everyone has a good rest of the summer!

– Sydney

Key Lessons

Posted on by nayavill

Like many others who have contributed to this blog, my practicum experience has been fundamentally altered by the pandemic. It’s been great to read about others’ experiences and know that the separation from the communities we’re working with has affected everyone. For me, that community is nearly 8,000 miles away – in Lusaka, Zambia.

A little bit of background on my practicum: Zambia has one comprehensive cancer center, the Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH), which serves the country’s population of over 17 million people. Since 2006, when the CDH was established, they have treated over 20,000 new cancer cases. The most common cancers seen at the CDH are cervical, breast, and prostate cancers. In recent years, in an effort to better understand determinants and outcomes of these cancers, doctors and researchers at CDH have prioritized data collection and exploration. They’ve developed a retrospective-prospective database to capture data on the cases of breast and cervical cancer at CDH. As part of my practicum, I am helping one of the data teams with data cleaning and validation, and conducting some research using the information in the database.

The distance to Lusaka fortunately hasn’t prevented me from being able to develop and practice data management skills. In my practicum search, I knew I wanted to get experience working with data, and the work I’ve been able to do this summer has been incredible for giving me opportunities to expand on concepts and techniques we’ve learned across in our first two semesters of coursework.

But the distance has also created challenges – divorcing the content of my work from the community I am meant to be working in. Our instructors at Gillings this past year have repeatedly emphasized that humans aren’t data points. A person’s story cannot be fully understood when it is distilled into a series of responses across a set of variables. But the separation from Zambia has left me feeling the absence of community interaction and the context of the of the data I work with day-to-day. I’d love to have been able to be safely face-to-face with researchers, co-workers, and patients at the CDH.

Other posts on this blog have wisely extoled the power of gratitude and searching for silver linings during these unconventional times. And I have a lot to be thankful for! I’m glad I’ve gotten to spend (virtual) time with the CDH data team over Zoom, learning snippets here and there about them – their academic and career interests, their thoughts about certain health topics, what sports they follow. Being remote also means that I’ve been able to see my family and friends and get to know Chapel Hill/Carrboro better! And, finally, this experience has instilled in me a key lesson I intend to carry throughout my career: some public health work can be done extremely effectively remotely, but the quality and value of this work can always be made better through connection with the community.

– Emma