discusion-05

Response one

The goal of my practical experience project is to improve the disaster resiliency among at-risk members of the community.  I know that this is a broad initiative, that is unable to be evaluated without the occurrence of a disaster event, but I believe the tools provided to the community because of this project can help to reduce the impact of socioeconomic disparities in the community.  Doing so should not only improve the overall health of the community but should result in a community that is better prepared to deal with the effects of disasters.

            Most of the data that I will be using for this project will be in the form of literature reviews concerning the impact of socioeconomic disparities on health and community disaster resiliency.  I will also work with the health department officials in the emergency planning and community health departments to identify critical areas of concern.  Additionally, I will work with the community services board to discuss the mental health impacts of disasters and how coping mechanisms can be used to improve resiliency. 

            I have begun to collect background research on resiliency and community health by utilizing SNHU’s Shapiro Library, Google Scholar, the National Institutes of Health PubMed website, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information database.  These sources have provided me with an understanding of the basics of public health emergency management .

Response TWO

Identified Problem

Higher rates of tobacco use among active duty service members compared to the general population that negatively impact military readiness.

Project Goals

Goal 1: Identify appropriate evaluation methods to evaluate healthcare professional smoking cessation interview methods and existing smoking cessation program educational materials and teaching methods by April 7.

Goal 2: Develop questionnaire to ask healthcare providers about interview methods for smoking cessation by April 7 to use at a later date. 

Goal 3: Describe criteria for selecting data sources and methods for carrying out data collection procedures to identify factors affecting the health and needs of the Navy population on the Naval base in San Diego by April 14.

Goal 4: Choose program for secondary data input and generate descriptive statistics by April 14 to analyze at a later date.

Goal 5: Use the evaluation method identified in “Goal 1” to evaluate existing smoking cessation program materials and teaching methods by attending a smoking cessation class on April 17 as well as inquiring about secondary data on class attendance rate.

Goal 6: Analyze descriptive statistics generated in “Goal 4” to identify depth of health issues and support provided for smokers and how this population’s health and behavior is affected by April 28.

Goal 7: Interview 5 healthcare providers about patient smoking cessation interviews by April 28.

Goal 8: Use the interview data collected to evaluate the healthcare professional methods used in a smoking cessation interview by May 5.

Goal 9: Create audience-appropriate public health content that can be used through motivational interviewing to be used by healthcare professionals by May 19.

Goal 10: Design a poster board that communicates audience-appropriate public health content for healthcare professionals by June 2.

Goal 11: Apply systems thinking tools to analyze smoking cessation program participation rate and identify ways to improve by June 9.

Goal 12: Apply systems thinking tools to analyze acceptance and effectiveness of the smoking cessation interview used by healthcare professionals and identify ways to improve by June 16.

Goal 13: Design an updated smoking cessation interview that would be used by healthcare professionals as part of the intervention in “Goal 11” by July 7.

Goal 14: Design an updated population-based intervention targeted on reducing smoking among Navy personnel by July 21.

            The research methods that I am considering measuring my project’s goals are through internet search, interviews with healthcare providers, previously collected data from Navy West Medicine through the Defense Health Agency Care Point information portal and data collected from the smoking cessation course. I am considering measuring these methods because they are readily available at my organization, convenient, saves time and surprisingly up to date. There were about 6000 active duty military patients and we were able to narrow our data down to just the ones that use tobacco products. The most challenging method will be conducting mini interviews with other healthcare providers because secondary data was unavailable for that part of the program I wanted to evaluate. Thus far, this internship has surely taught me to be flexible and creative!

            I have collected baseline research that describes the effects of smoking, the differences in social determinants between the general population and the military population, general smoking statistics and military smoking statistics as well as research on some of the more updated methods in smoking cessation. This research was collected mostly through online searches and through my supervisor. Lastly, my supervisor will be sending me the most recent Navy health assessment for further baseline research

the impact that socioeconomic disparities can have on a community’s ability to rebound from disaster events.