Department: Bureau of Family Health (LA Dept. of Health and Hospitals- Office of Public Health)
Position: Practicum Position (Unpaid)
Time Period: Fall 2014 or Fall 2014- Spring 2015 (if student wants to spread over 2 semesters)
Background
The Louisiana Office of Public Health, Bureau of Family Health (BFH) is the recipient of the Title V Maternal and Child Block Grant funds and the Title X Family Planning Grant funds for the State of Louisiana. With these funds, the Bureau manages family planning services, pregnancy prevention, mortality surveillance (Fetal, infant, child, and maternal), pregnancy and maternal child health educational initiatives, as well as domestic violence prevention.
The BFH provides qualified public health students with a rewarding practicum/internship. Students will gain valuable public health experience, specific to maternal and child health/childhood obesity prevention. Students will provide programmatic support to a statewide childhood obesity prevention initiative targeting LA child care facilities (Nutrition And Physical Activity Self Assessment for Child Care – NAP SACC) with a focus on evaluation and data collection/analysis. The purpose of the Bureau of Family Health NAPSACC Program internship is to foster skilled public health professionals and advocates for maternal and child public health issues, specifically childhood obesity prevention. Students will learn how nutritional and physical activity practices contribute to obesity outcomes and specific strategies to address policy, community, organizational barriers to best practices. The Practicum Student/Intern will be embedded within the Data Action team and his/her primary purpose will be to work with the NAPSACC Program Manager and Data to Action Team Leader on the evaluation of The NAPSACC program.
Detailed description of the internship
Purpose(s): Primary Purpose: To measure NAP SACC program’s impact on best practices in participating child care centers.
Goals
- Gain experience in program evaluation in the “real world.”
- Practice database management skills.
- Analyze, summarize and present data.
Objectives
- Conduct literature reviews on the evaluation of the NAPSACC initiatives.
- Apply statistical methods to self-assessment data and observer data (repeat measures).
- Transcribe qualitative interview data from child care health consultant staff.
- Summarize, write up and present aggregate and center specific results to the NAPSACC staff.
- Apply theory and strategy based communication principles across different settings and audiences
- Demonstrate effective written and oral skills for communication in the process of design, implementation and evaluation of public health programs.
Main Responsibilities/Activities
Data and Analytic Tasks
NAPSACC-collected self-assessment, observer and action plan data will be used for all analyses. Monitoring center improvements will include data entry, management and analysis of data. Analyses will include calculation of totals, frequencies, and multiple variable associations. The internship is within the Data Action Team. In addition to data management and analyses, a part of the assignment is the preparation and communication of the findings/results. The intern will be expected to prepare the results in easy to understand format and summarize what the data are “telling” us in terms of what “action” the NAPSACC staff can take to further refine their efforts.
Administrative Function & Other
- Attend meetings, conference calls, etc. related to NAPSACC
- Record minutes at meetings
- Other tasks as assigned
- Participate in other OPH/Bureau of Family Health related meetings as indicated
- Coordinate, as needed, with other practicum students working on NAPSACC program and initiatives
Required Skills/Qualities
- Organized
- Highly independent worker and motivated
- Critical thinker
- Strong foundation in data management and manipulation
- Strong aptitude for written and oral communications
- Basic to intermediate knowledge of SAS
- High level of competence with PPT, Excel
- Advanced Microsoft Access skills for query design as well as data export
- No specific analytic competencies are required, as they will be learned as part of the internship experience.
Primary Supervisors
Jane Herwehe, MPH
1450 Poydras Street, Room 2038
New Orleans LA 70112
Epidemiology Supervisor
Louisiana Office of Public Health
Bureau of Family Health
Jane Herwehe, MPH has 24 years of public health experience. She received her Master of Public Health degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 1989 and has worked nationally and internationally, in program design and evaluation with an emphasis on health care access and utilization, infectious diseases, behavioral health, and public health informatics. She recently joined the staff at the Bureau of Family Health and is spearheading evaluation of select Bureau programs. In her previous position with the Louisiana State University Health System, she supervised and mentored six graduate student interns from LSU School of Public Health, Tulane University and George Washington University. With the BFH, she supervises the Data and Action Team comprised of 4 epidemiologists and 4 survey and interview coordinators for the Pregnancy Risk and Monitoring System (PRAMS). Jane works closely with the NAPSACC Director on the evaluation for program, one of the Bureau’s childhood obesity prevention initiatives.
Leslie Lewis, MPH, LDN, RD
1450 Poydras Street, Rm 2032
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
Obesity Prevention Program Manager
Louisiana Office of Public Health
Bureau of Family Health
Leslie Lewis, MPH, LDN, RD is a registered dietitian with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) Office of Public Health (OPH). At OPH Leslie serves as the Obesity Prevention Program Manager for the Bureau of Family Health. In this role, Leslie assists with program and policy development on various projects related to Maternal and Child Health. In particular she assists in the implementation of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self Assessment of Child Care Centers, or NAP SACC, program in child care centers across the state. NAP SACC is an initiative of Michelle Obama Let’s Move Campaign aimed at increasing stronger nutrition and physical activity policies and practices in the childcare setting. Leslie also chairs the Louisiana Action for Healthy Kids Team and participates in several projects related to the support and promotion of breastfeeding.
