Summer 2022 – Page 12 – Gillings Around the globe

Wrapping Up

Posted on July 20, 2022 by

With Dr. Kwame Adu- Bonsaffoh, my mentor at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (Amy A. on right)

Two days after I returned from Ghana, the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) finally sent me the selenium concentrations of selected Ghana foods run by spectrometry and I could now begin my data analysis. Interestingly, I thereafter became the cause of my own delay—in my attempt to calculate the total selenium intake of the population of pregnant women my research team surveyed, I unknowingly went about a long path to analyze the data. As I see it, it was part of the learning process. Furthermore, the purpose of my practicum research was to carry out a feasibility study to make recommendations for a pilot study to be carried out in the future. This structure freed my mind to accept every part of the process as not a success or failure, but instead a lesson for improvement.

Seeing all of the moving parts of my project come together left me desiring to continue this work into the career path that I choose as a physician. Studying the relationship between micronutrients and pregnancy is a path where there is a lot of room to grow and discover. Policy changes and clinical counseling recommendations can come from this kind of research. Potentially, I can turn this foundational work into a career-long pursuit that helps to improve the lives of women not only in Ghana but also around the globe.

I am grateful to each mentor, preceptor and advisor who helped me complete this project. I could not have done it without their support. I look forward to seeing what my future holds in this field!

-Amy A.

¡Hasta luego, (see you later) Puerto Rico!

Posted on July 14, 2022July 11, 2022 by

Like I said, snorkeling with sea turtles is a tough experience to beat!

As the on-site portion of my practicum with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dengue Branch has come to an end, I am reflecting on an experience that has exceeded my expectations. Saying my goodbyes in San Juan, Puerto Rico was bittersweet. Time flew by exploring the island, but I was also missing my 6-month old puppy. While I returned to Chapel Hill, my practicum is not quite over yet. Thanks to Microsoft Teams, I have been continuing to work on my practicum projects remotely, while staying connected to the branch. From finalizing an evaluation plan and data collection tool to better assess the Communities Organized to Prevent Arboviruses (COPA) project’s community engagement events and activities, to conducting exploratory analyses to improve the multi-year prospective cohort’s participant retention, I have been keeping busy!

The ability to travel around Puerto Rico and immerse myself into a different culture has been one of the many delights of this practicum experience. I have learned throughout this experience how to be more perceptive and accommodating of cultural differences as well as how to receive and use constructive criticism to refine my projects. An unfamiliar component of this opportunity was the ability to give feedback on my experiences for future practicum students, which I learned to do so humbly and respectfully. Throughout this experience, my personal and professional growth were astounding! To no surprise, working as an epidemiologist was never monotonous. Opportunities and needs evolve, and no two days are the same. The chance to work in a federal office and attend meetings, as well as to work in a field project and attend community engagement activities has allowed me to see the diverse responsibilities and skills needed of an epidemiologist. It has also allowed me to observe firsthand the importance and codependency of these roles and the collaboration of professionals from different backgrounds and perspectives: you cannot have a team conducting community education and data collection without individuals to develop data collection tools and education materials, analyze the data, and evaluate and plan field activities (and vice versa).

All in all, this summer has been a very memorable –(snorkeling with sea turtles and paddling through the bioluminescent bays is a tough experience to beat!) and a thought-provoking one. The experience challenged me to grow as a person, a student, a public health professional, and a global citizen. I have been granted lessons that I intend to utilize as I continue into my second year of my MPH program at Gillings and begin my professional career as an aspiring epidemiologist. Fortunately, my time with the CDC Dengue Branch will continue into the fall, as I hope to publish the findings from my cohort retention analysis to help inform future community-based research studies in the region.

-Emma

Health and Access in the Himalayas

Posted on July 13, 2022July 8, 2022 by

My view from work in the Kathmandu valley, overlooking the southern hills

Hello! My name is Abby, an incoming second-year MPH student at UNC in the Global Health concentration. For my practicum, I wanted to experience public health work in the field. It was my priority to utilize my newly learned skills in public health to the benefit of my practicum site, while still being challenged and gaining skills that I could use in my career. I had the privilege of ending up in Kathmandu, Nepal. Having grown up here, I was all the more excited to return home and experience Nepal in a professional setting with the Nick Simon Foundation International in partnership with the Nick Simons Institute (NSI). NSI is a Nepali run NGO that works to innovate solutions in rural healthcare through training and hospital support and advocacy with the Ministry of Health and Population of the Nepali government. I will be assisting the Research, Advocacy, and Monitoring and Evaluation (RAM) team with Dr. Ruma Rajbhandari and Dr. Suresh Tamang.

This summer, I will be evaluating the qualitative and quantitative data for NSI’s Advanced Skilled Birth Attendant (ASBA) training program, culminating in a policy brief for the Nepali government. The ASBA training works to enhance the clinical skills of obstetric emergencies, specifically focusing on cesarean sections, in medical officers. The training has been designed in partnership with the National Health Training Center to fulfill the shortage of specialized human resources in rural Nepali hospitals where transportation in an emergency is often limited due to geography, infrastructure, and cost. Ultimately this work will inform government policy and the potential scaling-up of the program and the deployment of ASBA graduates.

Most days I come to the Kathmandu office, but I also had an opportunity for a field visit to Janakpur to observe the Minimum Service Standards (MSS) of a Secondary B hospital. It was an insightful experience that showed the differences between program plans and implementation. Although further work has not been finalized, I may assist in the development of a logic model for future monitoring and evaluation of NSI’s large Curative Service Support Program (CSSP) for the RAM team at NSI.

A full Thali plate with rice, lentils, veggies, ghee, aachar, and dahi

In my spare time I am catching up with family friends, eating all my favorite street food, refreshing my (very rusty) Nepali, and enjoying the heavy rains of the monsoon.

-Abby