Category: Summer 2022

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

Hitting the ground running

Posted on by nayavill
My loyal coworker, Elouise the cat, who clearly needs caffeine as much as I do.
My loyal coworker, Elouise, who clearly needs caffeine as much as I do.

If the last year has taught me anything, it is that in-person work and education can be exhausting. I didn’t notice how mentally, physically, and socially drained I was until I was allowed to take a metaphorical breath and work from home for a year. Historically, neurodiverse people have been forced to conform to a neurotypical world that was not designed with them in mind. COVID has certainly brought its own challenges and discomfort, but it has also given us a glimpse of how the world can be made more accessible.

I consider myself to be one of the many people that has benefited from this work paradigm shift. Some of the issues that arise for me in an in-person work environment have been avoided entirely this past year, saving me a significant amount of mental and emotional energy that could then be channeled into something more productive. I am lucky to be completing my practicum with NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, a leader in reproductive rights that I have long admired. I was able to hit the ground running on my first day, and my productivity and dedication are both well ahead of where they may be if the work had been in-person.

Despite only being a few weeks into my practicum, I have already been able to utilize many of my different skills, such as GIS, design, systems thinking, and systematic searches. My preceptor is an incredible supervisor and has been so supportive with helping me prioritize my academic and professional interests. I believe that the combination of a great preceptor, a multi-faceted organization, and the remote work setting has allowed me the flexibility to create my own path and utilize my strengths for the best possible practicum experience.

You may be saying to yourself, “but, Abby, don’t you think you would’ve had all those things if you’d been working in-person?” My answer would be yes; I do not think that the quality of the organization or the leadership skills of my preceptor would magically take a hit from returning to the office. What would take a hit, however, would be my own personal comfort and mental capacity for change. By avoiding work in a shared office setting, I also avoid the issue of adjusting to new sensory stimuli and the challenge of adapting to a new workplace social scene.

I am aware that my experience may not be typical (even amongst neurodiverse folks), and I recognize the fact that many of my classmates prefer the in-person setting. However, that is exactly why I believe it is important to avoid putting a monolithic description on remote work. People with disabilities have been deterred from traditional work settings for decades, with companies citing communication issues and fairness concerns as reasons for rebuffing work-from-home requests and office accommodations. COVID forced many companies to make adjustments for their entire staff quite quickly, often proving what their employees with disabilities have been saying for years: alternative workspaces and communication tools can be effective if we give them the chance. As the world begins to return to normal, I hope we can remember that Zoom fatigue is a very real thing, but the many types of fatigue afflicting people with disabilities are just as valid.

Cheers to diverse work settings for diverse people.

Abby

Mwauka bwanji to all our readers!!

Posted on by nayavill

Mwauka bwanji is Good morning in Nyanja, one of the most widely spoken languages in Lusaka, Zambia.

For the second phase of our practicum, we were privileged to travel to Lusaka, Zambia with our preceptor, Dr. Alan Rosenbaum. We went mainly to observe and interact with the Fetal Age and Machine Learning Initiative (FAMLI) project team based in Zambia.

With Dr. Kasaro (far right) and Project Coordinators in UNC GPZ.

We were welcomed by Dr. Margaret Kasaro, country director of UNC Global Projects Zambia (UNC GPZ). On our first day, we had the privilege to meet with the project coordinators who talked briefly about the various projects UNC had in Zambia. We discussed enrollment and retention strategies as well as barriers and delays usually encountered in the various studies ongoing in Zambia.

Over the next couple of days we visited the FAMLI project sites in both the University Teaching Hospital and the Kamwala Health Center. We were given a tour of both research facilities and had the chance to observe the process of delivering an informed consent to a participant, determining eligibility and actually receiving their ultrasounds. The data managers and research assistants also educated us on data entry and storage in ways that protected the identities of participants. The sonographers allowed us in their space and gave us an opportunity to scan some of the mothers with their permission (we are both medically trained doctors in our respective countries).

Observing the doctor scanning the mother.
Enam scanning a mother with her permission.
Munguu scanning a mother with her permission.
Alan interacting with a mother who benefitted from FAMLI scans.

The most exciting part of the trip was interacting with mothers at various stages. We had the chance to meet and talk with those waiting on their scans; those who were receiving their scans and could not hide their excitement when the gender of their babies was revealed; and even those who had benefitted from FAMLI scans and had their babies. They showed us how they carry their babies on their back with the chitenge. Mothers seemed happy to be a part of the FAMLI study because they had access to free monthly scans. Ordinarily they would have to pay about 70 Kwacha for an obstetric scan.

Enam learning to carry a baby with a chitenge.

Finally, we managed to do some tourism in Zambia on the weekends. We enjoyed great food, safaris and game drives in the Lower Zambezi National Park, visits to crocodile farms, taste of crocodile meat and, of course, the great Victoria Falls. Unfortunately, we did not see “Mosi oa Tunia” – “The smoke that thunders” because it was in the dry season, however, we saw the beautiful rock cliffs behind the Falls.

Munguu with White Rhinos in the background.

We cannot end this blog without saying a big Zikormo (Thank You) to our preceptor, Alan Rosenbaum, Dr. Kasaro, and everyone at UNC Gillings, Global Women’s Health Division and UNC GPZ for making this practicum experience successful!

– Munguu and Enam