Spring 2020 Internship
For my final UGA undergraduate semester, I am interning at The Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Dallas, Texas for my Health Promotion Internship. The Medical Institute’s mission is to provide medically accurate scientific information so individuals can make informed sexual health decisions. I will use this blog as a way to share my experiences throughout my internship. In my weekly updates, I will include details of my projects and the skills I am learning through my experiences. I will also explain the health promotion competencies I am meeting through my work. This internship will provide me many opportunities to expand my knowledge in the field of sexual health, and I am grateful for this opportunity.
Weekly Summary
Dates: 1/6/2020-1/10/2020
Total Hours: 40.75
Monday: Wow! I was so excited to start work today. I moved to Dallas about two weeks ago. While it has been enjoyable to explore a new city, I was really excited to get to work. I started my first day with an orientation session. It was great to learn about how the organization operates and what my role will be this semester. I am going to be involved with several projects, and I am excited to start working. I am helping create a needs assessment, and I am also going to be in charge of all of our social media accounts. I really feel like I will get to apply some of the skills I learned in my courses. Also, I loved meeting everyone in the office and I am thankful that everyone was so welcoming! We have an office dog named Kitty, which I was excited about as well.
Tuesday: I continued with my orientation today and I helped the office with several technology-related tasks including designing new email signatures and brochures. Medical Instute creates and sells many brochures about sexual health related topics. I learned all about the research process that goes into creating these brochures. I also learned about how they design and sell them. I also read several journal articles about recommendations for clinical services regarding sexual health. While I am still getting used to this, I am confident that this is going to be a great semester. I am making a few friends in Dallas, which is exciting as well!
Wednesday: Today I learned more details about some of the projects I will be involved with this semester. My health promotion project for my internship will be designing a training program and educational materials for our customers. First, I am designing a needs assessment to better understand what types of training programs and educational materials these centers could benefit from. I will be using survey monkey to design this assesment. We had a meeting today discussing what she be covered in the needs assessment. It is a great experience to be involved with a needs assessment.
Thursday: Today was a brainstorming day for the projects that Medical Institute will be working on this semester. I think that is it a really good experience that I am able to sit in on these kinds of meetings. I am already learning temwork skills that I think will benefit me in the future. I also started to work on my needs assessment. I don’t have much experience with survey monkey, but I am picking up on it fairly quickly. I am thankful that my supervisors allowed me to lead this project, and I am looking forward to this learning process.
Friday: I continued to work on my needs assessment today! Next week, I will get to connect with several of our customers to get feedback for my assessment. I also started reading some books that our CEO wrote. He was a OBGYN before he founded Medical Institute, and I thought it was really cool to read about his clinical perspective regarding sexual health. Overall, I am very happy with my experience this week, and I look forward to the rest of this semester. Outside of work, I have had a great experience living in Dallas so far. My apartment is in a great area, and I am meeting so many welcoming, local people.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
– 1.1 Plan Assessments for Health Education/Promotion
– 5.3 Manage relationships with partners and other stakeholders
Area VI: Serve as a Health Education/Promotion Resouce Person
– 6.3 Provide advice/education on health promotion related issues
Weekly Summary
Dates: 1/13/2020-1/16/2020
Total Hours: 39.5
I had a great second week at the Medical Institute! This was a week packed full of planning an events, but I had a great time. Medical Institute hosted a confrence on Thursday, and I got to be a part of it.
Monday-Wednesday:
I spent the first half of the week in the office and the second half at a conference in downtown Dallas! During my time in the office, I wrote a summary of an article about the effectiveness of various school-based sex education programs, which will be featured in our next newsletter. I will also be in charge of creating and sending out this news letter. I am using mailchimp to send it, and I look foward to learning a new program. Also, I am continuing to work on my needs assessment, which will be sent to hundreds of centers across the nation. I am in the process of developing the survey. I am including a variety of questions. The survey is designed to take five to ten minutes. I am still in contact with the consult for this survey. Based on the results of my assessment, I will develop a training program. I also went to the meet and greet for the confrence after work today. I met so many people in the field and got a lot of great advice about graduate school and my career.
Thursday:
I also had the opportunity to attend a conference at the George Bush Presidential Library. Medical Institute hosted the confrence, and I was able to learn what went into the planning out it. I was able to listen to presentations from sexual health researchers from all around the country. Finally, I participated in strategy groups where I worked with others interested in health policy. We also toured the George Bush Musem between events. This was a packed week, but it was a great experience. We had a really long day on Thursday, so my supervisor gave me Friday off.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
-1.1 Plan assessment process for health education/promotion
– 1.3 Collect Data to Determine Primary Needs
Area VII: Communicate, Advocate, and Promote Health
-7.1 Identify, communicate, and deliver messages using a variety of communication strategies, methods, and techniques
Weekly Summary
Dates: 1/20/2020-1/24/2020
Total Hours: 40.5
Monday-Wednesday:
I took part in several projects this week, but I spent the first half of the week perfecting my needs assessment. I am working closely with my supervisors to develop this assessment. I have now mastered survey monkey. We also hired a consultant to help me with this assessment. I met her on Tuesday and she is an expert in the field. She works more closely with out clients, and she told me about what she has personally heard that they requested in terms of health education materials. This helped me design questions for my assessment. The purpose of the assessment is to assess what types of educational materials and training programs would best benefit our customers. I am looking foward to sending it out!
Thursday and Friday:
Additionally, I am managing the Medical Institute’s social media pages. This is super exciting to me, as I think it is wonderful that I get to increase Medical Institute’s online presence. I am responsible for regularly posting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I am creating a wide variety of posts. For example, this month is a cervical cancer awareness month, so my most recent post focused on cervical cancer and the benefits of the HPV vaccination. Lastly, I am also helping to update brochures that are used for health education purposes. This brochure are sold nationally. I am responsible for ensuring the information and graphics are up to date. Also, I am responsible for coordinating with printers to ensure we are getting our products at the best value.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
-1.3 Collect Data to Determine Primary Needs
Area II: Plan Health Education/Promotion
– 2.1 Involve priority populations, partners, and other stakeholders in the planning process
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Determine factors that affect communication with the identified audience(s).
-6.4 Select methods and technologies used to deliver message(s).
Area VII: Communicate, Promote, and Advocate, for Health
–Identify, develop, and deliver messages using a variety of communication strategies, methods, and techniques
-6.4 Select methods and technologies used to deliver message(s).
Weekly Summary
Dates: 1/27/2020-1/31/2020
Total Hours: 38
I had another great week at Medical Institute! My favorite part of working at this organization is that I have the opportunity to work on many projects at once, which gives me a deeper understanding of the structure of the institution. I am still working on my needs assessment for the pregnancy resource centers.
We hired a consultant full-time to help me develop this assessment and it has been great working with an expert. I spent a large amount of time this week working on our assessment. My assessment will be ready to be sent out early next week, and I am eager to start getting responses!
Furthermore, I am continuously monitoring all of our social media platforms to ensure our followers get answers to their questions promptly. Additionally, I am working with a graphic designer in Washington, DC to design a new newsletter. I look forward to having a new template which will allow us to clearly communicate with our target audience. Outside of work, I am loving living in Texas. The environment is welcoming and there are tons of things to do.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
-1.1 Plan Assessments for Health Education/Promotion
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Provide Advice and Consulation to Health Education/Promotion Issues
Weekly Summary
Dates: 2/3/2020-2/6/2020
Total Hours: 39
I had another I had a busy week at Medical Institute! I have started to get results from my needs assessment, and I currently have responses from over 100 responses from over 30 states. I will close my survey on Monday and start to analyze my results. I am eager to analyze my results and assess the needs of these organizations. This project is strengthening my data analysis skills, and I am grateful for this opportunity. I had time to briefly look over my results, and I was happy to see the constructive responses I have received this far. Other than this project, I am continuing to update our brochures. I feel that the work I am doing with our brochures is very meaningful because they are sold nationally as health education materials. I am responsible for ensuring all the facts and references are up to date and that they are visually appealing. This has been an enjoyable process so far, and I feel like I am improving my graphic design skills. I ended my week by attending a meeting with our board of directors. It was a great experience to collaborate with people to help oversee our organization. I met wonderful people who I look forward to keeping in touch with in the future.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
– 1.7 Determine needs for health education/promotion based on assessment findings
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Provide Advice and Consulation to Health Education/Promotion Issues
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Determine factors that affect communication with the identified audience(s).
-6.4 Select methods and technologies used to deliver message(s).
Weekly Summary
Dates: 2/10/2020-2/14/2020
Total Hours: 40.25
I got to work on several projects this week! My needs assessment that I have been working on over the past several weeks now has responses from over 200 organizations! I am starting to analyze my results and I am excited to share my findings. I am using Survey Monkey to analyze my results. There are alot of really cool toold on Survey Monkey that are helping me with my analysis. I am also creating content for our social media platforms. World condom day was this week, so I created a post about the effectiveness of condoms. Lastly, I created an impact report that summarizes the key projects of Medical Institute.I got to work on several projects this week! My needs assessment that I have been working on over the past several weeks now has responses from over 200 organizations! I am starting to analyze my results and I am excited to share my findings. I am also creating content for our social media platforms. World condom day was this week, so I created a post about the effectiveness of condoms. Lastly, I created an impact report that summarizes the key projects of Medical Institute.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
– 1.3 Collect primary data to determine needs
– 1.7 Determine needs for health education/promotion based on assessment findings
Daily Summary
Dates: 2/16/2020-2/20/2020
Total Hours: 43.25
Monday: Medical Institute is hosting a training in early March about optimal sexual health. The training is for heath educators who then train parents. Topics being covered in this trianing include contraceptives, sexually transmitted infection, decision making, and healthy realtionships. I am helping update the presentations and ensuring the content and refrences are up to date. I am also doing some graphic design work to make them more visually appealing. I am also helping with communicating with our customers to ensure they have all the accomadations they need once they arrive in Dallas. It is a great oppurtunity for my to be involed with this training, and I am excited to play such a key role. I will also be a participant in the training, which is really exciting.
Tuesday: I attended a webinar today about how to effectively brand your health organization on social media. The webinar was very informative and taught me alot about how to keep your customers happy. It discussed the important of building personal connections with customers and how to properly responsd to bad reviews. I am also continuing my work for the workshop that I mentiones yesterday. I am continuing to add current research to the slides and ensuring the citations are correct.
Wednesday: Today I helped review powerpoints about sexually transmitted infections and HIV. These presentations will be used at our training next month, and another version will be presented at a presentation in April. I helped identify where additional information was needed and helped make the presentations more aesthetically pleasing. My bosses enjoy working with an organization that values my feedback.
Thursday: I continued to review powerpoint presentations today. The presentation I reviewed today was about sexual risk behaviors and how to educate parents about how to talk to their children. I am excited to attend the training prorgam next semester where these powerpoints will be used. I also spent a large amount of my time analyzing my needs assessment. I have data from a 181 organizations, and I am analyzing a combination of multiple choice questions, matrixes, and free response questions. The organizations who responded provided very detailed feedback, which is allowing me to create even more informative training programs.
Friday: I focused on analyzing my Needs Assessment. I created a presentation that I will be showing the board in a few weeks. I was really excited to learn what my target population needs, and I am excited to create training programs for them the rest of the semester. I also designed certificates for the training we are hosting in March. I had a great week at Medical Institute, and I am looking forward to the remainder of the semester. Also, we are moving to a new, corporate office next week and I am looking forward to being in a new space.
I am really enjoying this experience, and I am planning on staying at my internship over the summer. I will be moving from Dallas straight to graduate school in the fall!
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
– 1.3 Collect primary data to determine needs
Area IV: Identify, Develop, and Deliver Messages Using A Variety of Communication Strategies, Methods, and Techniques
-7.3 Influence Policy and/or System Change to Promote Health and Health Education
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
– 5.2 Manage technology resources
– 5.3 Manage relationships with partners and other stakeholders
Daily Summary
Dates: 2/23/2020-2/27/2020
Total Hours: 40.75
Monday: This week at work is very exciting because we are packing up to move to our new office next week. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, we are also hosting a training next week so I am spending a large amount of my time preparing for it. I am thankful that my company is allowing me to take part in the training as a participant. Today I was responsible for putting together the books for participants. The books include all of the power points and the speaker notes. I am also preparing for my conference call tomorrow with the consultant. We will be discussing the results and implications of my needs assessment.
Tuesday: I continued to help pack and plan for the move today. I also had a conference call with the consultant for my needs assessment and it went well! She was very happy with my results and thought the assessment was well designed. She thinks my results can be used to help design many projects in the future. I had responses from 41 states, which I was really happy about. It is really cool to see how large of an impact this survey had. Also, people left very detailed responses, which is very valuable to the project I am doing next. It has been a great experience to create and deliver this needs assessment.
Wednesday: I was given a large amount of time today to brainstorm a health promotion project. While I have been a part of several health promotion projects this semester, this project will be my focus for the remainder of the internship. I am very thankful that my supervisors are open to any type of health promotion project that interests me. I also helped compile all of the power points for the training next week on flash drives for the participants. There has been so much planning for this training, and I am excited to see how it goes!
Thursday: I talked with my supervisor today about a project that I will be working on for the rest of the semester. I will be doing a social media revamp for Medical Institute. For my project, I will create a minimum of 30 social media posts that promote sexual health. I already have some ideas, and I look forward to researching more. I am very excited to do this project, as it will lead be combine my health promotion and creative skills.
Friday: I was out of the office today. I went to Houston to tour The University of Texas, and I am grateful that my supervisors are flexible to let me take trips like this. I loved seeing the school and meeting current faculty and students. The college is in the Houston Medical Center, which was very exciting to experience. I am planning to pursue a MPH in Health Policy this fall, and I am so excited to see what the future has in store for me.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
– 1.3 Collect primary data to determine needs
Area IV: Identify, Develop, and Deliver Messages Using A Variety of Communication Strategies, Methods, and Techniques
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
– 5.2 Manage technology resources
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Provide Advice and Consulation to Health Education/Promotion Issues
Dates: 3/2/2020-3/6/2020
Total Hours: 41.75
Monday and Tuesday: I was excited to come back to work today after being gone on Friday! I had a great time in Houston. Medical Institute held a training on Monday and Tuesday. This was a pilot training so we could test our new curriculum. We trained health educators about sexual health topics such as sexually transmitted infections and contraceptives. Participants came from all over the state of Texas. After spending so much time planning, it was a great experience to see the training happen. I also did the training as a participant! I learned valuable health communication skills, such as how to talk to younger populations about sexual health, through the training.
Wednesday: Today was our first day in our new office! Our new space is beautiful and I am so thankful to be here. The CEO brought me flowers for my new desk, which I thought was very sweet. After our orientation to the new setup, I updated some powerpoints and continued working on my social media project. I am exploring the most current sexual health research to develop content for my social media posts!
Thursday: I spent most of my time on my social media project today. I am creating content that will be posted over the next several months. There is a great deal of research and planning involved, but I am enjoying this project so far. I also got really exciting news today! I was offered a position as a graduate research assistant position at the University of South Carolina. I will be working with the Arnold Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative. I am moving to Columbia in May to start my research over the summer. This is something I have dreaming of for so long, and I am so excited about this opportunity.
Friday: I had another busy day in the office today. I updated the format and references for two powerpoints. These presentations will be used at a conference next week. The powerpoints covered information about contraceptives.
Competencies Met
Area IV: Identify, Develop, and Deliver Messages Using A Variety of Communication Strategies, Methods, and Techniques
-7.3 Influence Policy and/or System Change to Promote Health and Health Education
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Determine factors that affect communication with the identified audience(s).
Dates: 3/9/2020-3/13/2020
Total Hours: 36
Monday and Tuesday: A partner of Medical Institute launched a video a few weeks ago to raise awareness of the potential health consequences of anal sex. This video still needs adjustments, and our partner asked Medical Institute to help gather feedback about the video. I created a survey that asked individuals to identify as many many technical, grammaitucal, and content errors as possible. I sent it to fellow health promotion students as well as people who knew very little about the subject. Those who identified the most errors got a gift card. The feedback we got was very helpful in improving the video. I also continued my efforts to keep our social media accounts active and engaging.
Wednesday: Medical Institute recently decided to create online courses and training programs! They decided to do this based on the results of my needs assessment. Many of our clients requested online training programs, so that’s what we are in the process of creating. I am so excited that my assessment is being put to work and I am so excited to get started with creating the course! As of now, we are planning on developing 20 online courses. We are currently making our first course about sexually transmitted infections. I am responsible for inserting all of the content into the course and ensuring our references are current and reliable. Additionally, I am working on the aesthetics of the course to make sure it is engaging to learners.
Thursday and Friday: I continued my work with the online course for the remainder of the week. On Thursday we created a plan for teleworking. We are very concerned about limiting our exposure to the Coronavirus, so we developed a plan of what we will do if we decide to work from home. Our plan will utilize Microsoft Teams as well as Facetime to ensure our team is connected. On Friday morning we decided that it was in our best interest to work from home indefinitely. While I am disappointed that I will not be able to interact with my co-workers in the office, I am grateful that the leadership is taking the initiative to protect the health of our employees.
Competencies Met
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
-1.1 Plan Assessments for Health Education/Promotion
Area II: Plan Health Education/Promotion
– 2.4 Develop a plan for the delivery of health education/promotion
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Determine factors that affect communication with the identified audience(s).
Dates: 3/16/2020-3/20/2020
Total Hours: 40.75
This was my first week ever working from home! I missed being at the office with my coworkers, but I am grateful that we took the precautions of working from home during this pandemic. I am not splitting my blog into each day, because I spent all of my time working one large project and I want to share my experience working remotely.
All week I worked on developing our online course about sexually transmitted infections. We are using Canvas as our platform to design and deliver the course. Our team is doing an excellent job of communicating, which is making the development process seamless. We have a facetime meeting every morning and afternoon, and call one another throughout the day as needed. The course is comprehensive and includes a comprehensive understanding of STIs and how they can impact health. The course provides learners with a basic understanding of the most common STIs and infomation transmission, prevention, testing, and treatment. We are also incorporating short quizzes and optional assignments. The assignments help learners summarize the information they learn as well as explore supplemental resources about STIs. I am responsible for finding and organizing content for the modules and ensuring that the information comes from reputable sources, such as the CDC or peer-reviewed publications. I am also responsible for adding graphics and ensuring the course is aesthetically pleasing. It has been a very rewarding experience watching this course come together in such a short period. We should be able to start piloting the course in the next couple of weeks.
I am so, so grateful that I have the opportunity to work remotely during this time, and I am exctited to start the pilot test of the course.
Area II: Plan Health Education/Promotion
– 2.4 Develop a plan for the delivery of health education/promotion
Area IV: Identify, Develop, and Deliver Messages Using A Variety of Communication Strategies, Methods, and Techniques
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
-6.3 Determine factors that affect communication with the identified audience(s).
-6.4 Select methods and technologies used to deliver message(s).
Dates: 3/23/2020-3/27/2020
Total Hours: 40
This was my second week working from home! I am learning to really enjoy face timing with my coworkers. I am also adjusting to face timing family and friends during this time. I love being on the go and in the office, so working at home has been a huge adjustment for me. However, I am trying to maintain my schedule to help me stay focused.
I spent my week continuing to develop our online courses. My supervisors are editing the sexually transmitted infection course. I started developing the framework for our next two courses, which are contraceptives and anatomy and physiology. These courses are very comprehensive and provide the learner with a thorough understanding of the subject area. It has been so fun creating these courses. I am inserting the content, organizing it, and inserting graphics. I forgot how much I learned in my anatomy course.
We are also reading a book as a team called “The Four Principles of Execution.” It is a great book and I think it is neat that I get to discuss it as a team.
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
– 5.2 Manage technology resources
Area VI: Serve as a Health Education/Promotion Resouce Person
– 6.3 Provide advice/education on health promotion related issues
Dates: 3/30/2020-4/3/2020
Total Hours: 40
I am getting used to working from home! I was able to drive home from Texas for a little bit to stay with my parents. I am thankful that my supervisors gave me the flexibility to do this. It was great to see my family for the first time since Christmas. My team keeps gets better at using technology to streamline our work and communication.
I spend about 80% of my time working on our online courses, so I am going to split up my blog by project instead of by day. We are currently working on three courses: STIs, Contraceptives, and Human Growth and Development. While my supervisors are editing the content in the course, I am adding new things to the course such as additional quizzes, resources, videos, activities, and study breaks. I had fun creating the study breaks for students. They are placed periodically throughout the module to encourage a quick study break. The activities that we created for students are very informative and engaging. I am excited to see the feedback when we do our pilot test. It has been a really cool experience making this course. I am excited to go back to Texas this weekend to work from home.
Outside of the online course, I am helping desinging content for social media! It has been a great experience to put my creative design and health promotio skills to use on our social media platforms.
Area IV: Identify, Develop, and Deliver Messages Using A Variety of Communication Strategies, Methods, and Techniques
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
– 5.2 Manage technology resources
Area VI: Communications
– 6.5 Deliver the messages effectively using the identified media and strategies.
Dates: 4/6/2020-4/10/2020
Total Hours: 35
I am back in Texas! We are continuing to see how people are affected by COVID-19, and I am grateful that I am able to continue to work remotely. During our morning calls, we often talk about this public health crisis and the potential health problems as a result of the pandemic. I am learning a lot from the doctors and health professionals that I work with!
I am still working on our online courses. I spent a lot of my time this week importing every reference into EndNote. We are making an e-book to go along with our online course, and having all the references in Endnote is very helpful in the long run. I got to sit in on a call about sex education standards. I learned about the process of how standards are researched and created. These standards will likely be implemented in all public schools in Texas.
I also created a social media posts about HIV and AIDs in youth, which I attachted at the top of this post. I learned that about 22% of new HIV diagnosis is in youth. We are encouraging frequent testing and safe sex practices.
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
– 5.2 Manage technology resources
– 6.5 Deliver the messages effectively using the identified media and strategies.
Area VII: Communicate, Advocate, and Promote Health
-7.1 Identify, communicate, and deliver messages using a variety of communication strategies, methods, and techniques
Dates: 4/13/2020-4/17/2020
Total Hours: 40.75
I am continuing to work on our online courses. As a team, we are spending three to four hours together each day carefully going through the content of the course. Since we are working from home, I have the course on my screen and I make live edits via Zoom. It has been really interesting and exciting to see how productive we can be working from home. I am also helping develop quizzes and case studies to put in the courses. These case studies include real-world examples of sexually transmitted infections and how to reduce the risk of getting an STI. I have really enjoyed helping create these examples.
As we are preparing for pilot testing, I am creating short surveys and placing them throughout the course. these surveys ask individuals to provide feedback about the content of the course and the useability of the platform. The questions rand from multiple choice to Likert scales to short answers. This will allow individuals in the focus group to provide feedback as they test the course. We are hoping to recruit around 30 individuals to test the course. I feel that the skills I have learned in school prepared me to develop a quality survey for this course.
I am learning so much from this process. I feel like I am an expert on sexually transmitted infections. I am also learning valuable skills about how to be a better member of a team. I feel that I have improved my listening and communication skills through this process.
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion
-1.1 Plan Assessments for Health Education/Promotion
-1.5 Examine the factors that influence the process by which people learn
Area II: Plan Health Education/Promotion
-2.4 Develop a plan for the delivery of health education/promotion
Area V: Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
– 5.2 Manage technology resources
Area VI: Communications
-6.3 Provide Advice and Consulation to Health Education/Promotion Issues
Dates: 4/20/2020-4/24/2020
Total Hours: 42
Wow! I cannot believe that this was my last week at the Medical Institute. This semester has flown by, but I have also had the opportunity to be a part of many projects, and I have learned so much through this experience. Reflecting on my semester, I got to be apart of many exciting changes with this company. We moved to a new office, got a new Science Department Director, and transitioned to working at home full time. I developed and evaluated a needs assessment, took over all our social media platforms, and helped develop online courses. While I feel like the courses I took at UGA really prepared me for these projects, I feel like I still learned so many new skills through this experience. I learned so much about sexual health, and I developed invaluable leadership and teamwork skills along the way. I feel strongly that my experience during this internship has prepared me to be successful in graduate school and with my future career endeavors.
I spent my whole week working on finalizing our online class. Our first-class to go live is called Sexually Transmitted Infections. I have spent 5-6 hours each day on the phone with my team going through the course line by line. We are gearing the course to those who have a little background about sexual health, so we are trying to ensure the content is well explained and easy to understand. I have also spent my own time formatting the course and updating the references. It is finished and we are finalizing the survey for the pilot test. We are brainstorming people that would be ideal candidates to be a part of the pilot test. We want to include a variety of people including students, social workers, psychologists, teachers, nurses, and doctors.I am very proud of the work we have done. The course has many components that will help educate learners about sexually transmitted infections. the course includes content, summaries, quizzes, case studies, wellness stips, fun facts, and additional resources. I also posted on our social media platforms and sent out an email blast in regard to Medical Institute’s statement about COVID-19. I will begin working part-time over the summer to help Medical Institute as this course goes live. I am moving to Columbia soon for graduate school, and I am so excited for this new chapter.
Area I: Assess Needs, Resources, and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion