Hello, my name is Nija Newton, an incoming second-year student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill obtaining a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Maternal, Child, and Family Health. This summer my practicum is with The Durham County Department of Public Health (DCoDPH), working with the population health division on the 2023 Community Health Assessment (CHA). This is my second time here at DCoDPH, the first time I interned here was back in 2020 right before COVID-19 was in full affect and I worked on a project for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, informing adolescents on contraception. The purpose of the CHA is to guide decision-making, programs, and policies so that all people of Durham have equitable opportunities for safety and good physical, mental and social health. My job working with the CHA team is to focus on the survey that is going to be distributed to Durham County to collect all the data that is going to be put into the 2023 CHA. I will also be creating a data reference document on Durham County’s health determinants for the health department to use at their leisure to better assist them with easily accessing resources and providing them to the public. Lastly, since a collogue and I are the first group of interns for population health and working on the CHA, I will be creating a training curriculum for future interns. The training will give interns a sense of the internship, what to expect, the expectations, and how to perform effectively. My goals are to gain skills and create lines of connection. It has only been a few weeks and I have fell in love and was welcomed in with open arms. I can’t wait to see what the near future holds during my time here at DCoDPH.
When I first joined MPH program, I did have a pretty specific area of interest. Through my clinical experience in the past, I wanted to focus more on the non-communicable diseases. Specifically, I wanted to work to reduce cardiovascular health disparities that are disproportionately affecting certain populations. However, a year of studying at Gillings made me feel a bit less clear about what I hope to do in the future, but in a good way!! Throughout the courses and from the peers, I was able to learn about many different public health issues that have not paid attention to. All the issues were important, and I wanted to know more about them. For this summer practicum, I will also be exploring the topic that I am not too familiar of. I am already very excited to see all the things I will be learning and gaining throughout!
For my practicum, I am currently working with the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) in the Division of Public Health within the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). OEEB identifies and quantifies environmental and occupational hazards, conducts risk assessments, evaluates health effects, and provides health-based guidance relating to contaminants and health effects across the state. Among multiple projects the team is working on, I will be supporting DHHS contributions to the NC Clean Transportation Plan. The NC Clean Transportation Plan is being developed in response to Executive Order 246, “North Carolina’s Transformation to a Clean Equitable Economy”. Specifically, I will be working on a literature review about the health effects of transportation-related air pollutants, a short manuscript about the potential health benefits of implementing the NC Clean Transportation Plan, and a presentation to OEEB about the findings. To gain more insights and knowledge on environmental health, especially on air-pollution and climate change, I will be attending the Health Effects Institute Annual Conference and related virtual sessions. I may also assist with other related products or additional projects in OEEB, such as summaries of air pollution exposures associated with biogas or research to support environmental justice activities.
My goals for this practicum are to gain practical experience in a professional public health work environment, learn more about air pollutants and their impacts on health, and develop professional writing skills. I am also looking forward to participating in presentations and events that are relevant to environmental health and justice and engaging with public health practitioners from various sectors. Things are going great so far! Hope everyone else is having an amazing summer as well!
Me at the Biltmore Estate; Photo Credit- Kjersta Unzen
I am Amy Tran, a student in the Global Health concentration who is moving steadily towards the second year of the MPH program. My public health interests primarily revolve around issues of maternal and child health, particularly in low-resource settings, though I am also interested in aspects of data analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, and the applications of GIS in public health.
For my summer practicum experience (to which I was introduced by my former faculty advisor, Dr. Rohit Ramaswamy), I am working with a joint team of UNC Gillings researchers and the Kybele-Ghana organization. My preceptors are also Ph.D. students here at Gillings—Stephanie Bogdewic, MPH, and Caitlin Williams, MSPH. This collaboration is centered on the scale-up of the midwife-led Obstetric Triage Implementation Package (OTIP) in Ghanian hospitals and tertiary health facilities, which was developed in 2013 and since 2019, has been scaled up to a national level to be implemented in six other high-volume hospitals [1].
School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Ghana; Photo Credit- Caitlin Williams
This obstetric triage intervention is aimed at reducing maternal mortality by addressing the third delay in referral hospital settings, or the delay in a patient receiving the appropriate health care once it has been sought [1, 2]. Midwives are central to the OTIP intervention, as they are the ones responsible for assessing mothers* once they arrive at the delivery facility with green, yellow, and red bands that indicate the risk level of the pregnancy [1]. At this stage, the research team is concerned with assessing the “know-do” gap in regards to implementation theory, as well as the leadership dynamics and development tied to the program.
COVID-19 Signage at the University of Ghana; Photo Credit- Caitlin Williams
I have limited “professional” experience working in global public health settings, generally relegated to a Peace Corps volunteer experience that is more aptly described as a community health outreach “stint”, that ultimately motivated me to pursue formal education and qualifications here. Therefore, being able to work with a research team on a project with clear and direct practical applications to maternal health has given me an extremely valuable opportunity to look at a public health issue and intervention from a different perspective. In addition, my responsibilities include the development of an interview guide for a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with leadership in the OTIP intervention, as well as the qualitative data analysis and presentation of findings to a specialized stakeholder audience. I’m thankful for the introduction to qualitative research methods I received from Dr. Suzanne Maman and the teaching team in HBEH 753 Qualitative Methods in Health Behavior (highly recommend!), in addition to the other synthesis/interprofessional skills introduced in other core courses. My preceptors have been nothing but supportive and accommodating—they are great motivating mentors and I look forward to the rest of this practicum experience!
As an added note, due to the hybrid/remote nature of this practicum experience, I have been able to benefit from the freedom to better explore the local sights. Recently, I have taken a trip to Asheville, including the iconic Biltmore Estate, as shown (above). As a Florida native, I am excited for this opportunity to explore a brand new place!
-Amy T.
* The author acknowledges and respects the lived experiences of birthing individuals with gender identities not exclusive to cisgender female identities. However, for the purposes of data collection/analysis and recognizing Ghanian cultural values and norms, individuals that give birth have been referred to with traditional binary terminology, including women, females, and mothers.
