Department: Louisiana Department of Health-Office of Public Health-Bureau of Family Health
Position: Internship/Practicum, unpaid
Start Date: Jan 2020, preferred
End Date: June 2020, flexible
Application Deadline: Nov 1, 2019
Background The Bureau of Family Health (BFH) is the recipient of the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant funds and the Title X Family Planning Grant funds for the state of Louisiana. With these funds, the BFH manages the breastfeeding program, the Louisiana perinatal quality collaborative, family planning services, 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 internship/practicum experience. Students will gain valuable public health experience specific to maternal and child health and breastfeeding. Students will provide programmatic support to a statewide breastfeeding initiative targeting LA maternity care facilities with a focus on evaluation and generating reports. The Breastfeeding Program includes The Gift, an evidence-based program for Louisiana birthing facilities designed to increase breastfeeding rates and hospital success by improving the quality of their maternity services and enhancing patient-centered care. The internship is designed to foster skilled public health professionals and advocates for maternal and child public health issues, specifically breastfeeding. The intern will work directly with the Breastfeeding Program Coordinator and will learn how social, behavioral, environmental and biological factors contribute to breastfeeding outcomes and specific strategies to address policy, community, and organizational barriers to breastfeeding.
Detailed description of the internship Primary Purpose: To measure The Gift program’s impact on breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity and duration among women delivering in Gift designated hospitals. Secondary Purpose: To evaluate the success of The Gift model in aiding participating hospitals with implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and to assist hospitals with achieving designation through The Gift and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
Goals
- Analyze, summarize and present data in report format 2. Develop skills related to public health project implementation and evaluation.
Objectives
- Prepare and present reports based on hospital surveys. 2. Explore literature on various aspects of maternal and child health issues with a primary focus on
breastfeeding. 3. Demonstrate effective written and oral skills for communication of the evaluation of public
health programs. 4. Assist with the production of a newsletter.
Main Responsibilities/Activities The intern will generate reports to assist birthing facilities with identifying opportunities to improve their maternity practices to increase breastfeeding rates. Data from annual hospital surveys will be used to monitor improvements of the implementation of The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. A large part of the internship is the preparation of reports and communication of the findings to program management. The position may include providing support at regional meetings and events as well as providing support to other maternal and child health projects and initiatives.
Administrative Function & Other
- Data entry
- Prepare reports and newsletter
- Provide support at meetings and events
- Other tasks as assigned, such as, website maintenance and literature searches
Required Skills/Qualities
- Foundation or strong interest in maternal and child health
- Strong aptitude for written and oral communications
- Highly organized
- Professional
- Highly independent worker and self-motivated
- Critical thinker
- High level of competence with PPT, Excel
- No specific analytic competencies are required, as they will be learned as part of the internship experience
To apply, please email a resume, 2 references and a brief narrative on why you are interested in this position to Betsy Dancisak, Breastfeeding Program Coordinator, at Betsy.Dancisak@la.gov
