Student SPHere 2008-09

I can’t believe week three is just about done – or, more importantly, that the semester is already one-fifth over! Time is flying because I’m totally swamped, so I’m glad it’s flying.

My big Stressor of the Week was our first assignment for community health theory and practice. Last semester was focused on theory; this semester, it’s practice. We’re basically doing one long project – in a lot of smaller chunks -- from now until May: planning an intervention and writing an accompanying grant proposal.

Much of my professional and personal experience is in working with refugees and immigrants, in health- and non-health-related capacities. So the obvious choice of a health outcome or behavior to modify was something within those groups locally. But I decided to make my life a lot harder and go into uncharted territory, picking a topic I know very little about that requires interventions I have zero experience in – and so far, I’m glad I did.

Inspired by an amazing project two of my journalism classmates worked on last semester, I decided to target lowering the c-section rate within a specific hospital system in order to improve outcomes for mothers and infants during birth. Just in researching and writing the background section, I learned a ton and am becoming really interested in the topic. Of course I was pulling my hair out finishing the assignment the night before it was due (and I even started the week before!), but now that it’s done, I’m looking forward to the next steps of the program planning process. I’m especially excited about creating a policy-level intervention as part of my plan. Can’t say I know how to do that at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll learn soon.

This semester already feels very different from the first in terms of content. Fall was a nice intro into the theory and framework behind everything we as public health professionals-to-be do, and this semester, we’re really starting to do it. Very exciting. And also exciting that I actually very much appreciate what I learned last semester and love feeling as if I’m building off of it.

Fridays make me so happy this semester – I guess that’s what taking 16 credits does to a person! I’m glad I’m doing it – and that the extras I’m taking now will mean a lighter load in the future – but trust me, I will not be doing it again.

Happy weekend!