Christina Cole

1. Learning through Field Experience: Northwestern’s Program in Public Health Open House and Poster Session

   September 17, 2010 by Christina Cole

   The Feinberg School of Medicine hosts Northwestern’s Program in Public Health under the Department of Preventative Medicine. A few undergraduate students gathered in a room with Maureen Moran, the associate director of the program and a current MPH student to discuss the admission process as well as details of the program. Within the program, there are several different degree options—freestanding MPH, combined MPH/MD, combined MPH/PHD or Master of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Many students with varying degree paths take classes together which proves for a diverse set of interests in the classroom. For those students who are enrolled in the freestanding MPH program, it is a part time program so many students continue their healthcare related job during the day and then take classes at night. Some of the classes that are offered are Behavior, Science and Health, Introduction to Biostatistics, Environmental Health Sciences and Introduction to Epidemiology.

   

   MPH Poster Presentation

   The most intriguing part of the evening was the Master in Public Health 2010 Field Experience Poster Presentation. MPH students gathered around posters displaying elaborate research projects. Students spent about 200 hours doing service in the community with an organization of their choice and this was their opportunity to present their research. The field experience helps MPH students achieve interdisciplinary public health knowledge, which is important to the Northwestern curriculum. One student, Lauren Slubowski, a MPH/PHD student worked with the Student Health Force, a public health initiative aimed at improving the health and success of high school students through education, skill-building, and career development. Lauren said that the children’s health education, awareness and interest grew tremendously throughout the year. Laura Phillips, another student interviewed HIV-positive patients about smoking cessation in the Lending Hands for Life program at Humboldt Park’s Erie Family Health Center. She found that the HIV patients knew that smoking was bad for their health but had no great incentive to stop because of their current condition. Overall, I was impressed with the variety of research topics and the student’s continued dedication to their community organizations.

   Click here for a photo slideshow of the poster presentations.

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   1. Working to improve lives: Northwestern’s Global Health Program
   2. Community Engaged Research: A Potent Strategy for Promoting Health Public Policy
   3. NU students help shape the future of Evanston public health
   4. Northwestern sends team to Emory’s Global Health Competition
   5. The Road Less Traveled – Public Health Graduate School Fair

   Category: Child Health, Community Health, General, HIV/Aids, Public Health | Tags: blog, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg, MPH, Program in Public Health | Comments (0)

2. Community Engaged Research: A Potent Strategy for Promoting Health Public Policy

   September 11, 2010 by Christina Cole

   I attended a lecture recently by Meredith Minkler, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. This event was sponsored by Northwestern University’s Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC) and the Community Engaged Research Center. Professor Minkler spoke of her experience in community engaged research and its affects on promoting healthy public policy. Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), her specialty, encompasses several principles, one being asset based community development (ABCD). This principle involves building on pre-existing strengths and assets of a community. Other principles include co-learning between partners to begin the power sharing process, creating a balance between research and action and a commitment to sustainability. With her background in policy, Professor Minkler also took us through the stages of the policy process. The first step she explained is defining the problem, second is setting the agenda, third is constructing policy alternatives, fourth is deciding on the policy to pursue, fifth is implementing the policy and fifth is evaluation. By creating policy hand in hand with CBPR principles, you not only empower the community with co-learning and creating opportunities for partners to learn skills in leadership, strategic planning, management and negotiation but also create sustainable change in the community.

   This concept is demonstrated in the example Meredith Minkler gives on the food desert in San Francisco’s  Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood. Professor Minkler and her policy team defined the problem as the lack of access to healthy food for the residents of the Bayview/Hunter’s Point. Nearly 25% of the residents ate fast food daily and in order to get to the closest supermarket, residents had to take 3 buses.  However, they noted there were neighborhood stores already in existence but their shelves were mostly stocked with tobacco and alcohol. This is an example of asset based community development. When constructing policy alternatives, Minkler and her team reviewed municipal ordinances but decided on creating the Good Neighbor Program. This policy program gave local stores store branding, free marketing, city recognition, discounts on energy efficient appliances if they agreed to devote 10%+ of shelf space to healthy foods and to reduce outdoor tobacco advertisements. By giving them the tools to succeed, the Bayview/Hunter’s point neighborhood had tremendous success. All Good Neighborhood Program stores had an increase in produce sales, decrease in tobacco and alcohol and an increase in overall profits.

   With capacity focused partnering, policy makers will see the community as possessing assets on which to build resources and as a result, a high level of mutual respect and trust in the community will be gained. Minkler interpreted Community Based Participatory Research as a kind of street science necessary for policy making. She ended her presentation with a quote from colleague, Jason Corburn,. “When CBPR identifies hazards, highlights previously ignored questions, provides hard to gather data, involves difficult to reach populations, and expands the possibilities for intervention alternatives and success, science and democracy are improved.”

   Related posts:

   1. NU students help shape the future of Evanston public health
   2. Learning through Field Experience: Northwestern’s Program in Public Health Open House and Poster Session
   3. Research Update from Global Health Student Sarah Cohick on the Ugandan Hydrocephalus Project
   4. ‘Contagion’ echoes the reality of public health outbreaks
   5. Will Butler: ‘Connect with your community’

   Category: Community Health, Policy, Public Health | Tags: ABCD, ARCC, blog, CBPR, community engaged research, Policy | Comments (0)