Practicum Question

[Beckage]

Hi everyone!
I’m an MPH student in epidemiology at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health. I had a few questions about practicum/career experiences and wondered if anyone here had any ideas. I know most people here do their practicum at the health department or tag on to a research project with a professor here but I’ve been looking for ideas outside the norm. I’ve looked at a few internships through the CDC and another through programs such as GSEP but they are all very competitive or in locations that are out of my range.

I’m really interested in what I’ve heard referred to as “translational epidemiology” – transferring epi into policy, practice, or advocacy. No one here is really sure where those positions might be – my advisor is big on research epi as that’s her field. Does anyone know any other types of internships experiences possibly in an industry setting such as health care organizations, companies, or NGO’s. I’m really not opposed to government positions including the health department - I’m just trying to get a feel for what else is out there. Does anyone have any examples of what others have done?

Thanks so much!

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[EpiGirl14]

You might be able to do a program evaluation with an NGO. You could create a research question from some program data and if you get to communicate with the team who implemented it, you could identify weaknesses in the programming that affected a possible unexpected outcome or made it challenging to ascertain the outcomes of the questions you were trying to answer. You can also point out some of the strengths and novelties of the research. This is kind of what I did for my Epi practicum. The NGO I worked with had some program data that was just sitting around and my supervisor there basically volunteered me to analyze it and come up with research questions. At the end of it all, the results were ambiguous because program data is not research data. It had a lot of gaps was incomplete, and there were procedural issues I found out about being able to talk to the field team and ask them questions.

I hope this is somewhat helpful

 

[Beckage]

Hi! Thank you - that was helpful!

I’ve heard the “public health analyst” term thrown around and this sounds like it might fall into that category (I assumed that was mostly health policy and management but wasn't sure). I’m not sure what type of NGO opportunities are available in Pittsburgh but I know the health care industry here is huge. Maybe there’s a company here or possibly in Philadelphia where I can perform similar tasks.

Thanks again!