Public Health Experience

[sirbuckie]

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Does anyone know how I might obtain public health experience? I'm not sure where to find a public health veterinarian or how to go about asking to volunteer with one. I want to go into public health and I'm afraid the adcoms might ask me how I know it's for me if I don't have any experience in that area...

 

[No Imagination]

A few years ago I was interested in an MPH to compliment vet medicine. I contacted my cities DoH Veterinarian, and nicely asked to talk to him about it. He was very nice and gave me several options to pursue. A few weeks later he called me, told me about an internship position with the DoH that required someone with veterinary experience. Ended up doing a wonderful summer project utilizing WNV sentinel birds.

This was through NYC, so I am not sure how many other cities have vets associated with them, but depending on your location, I would contact the DoH or go online, look for internships - or just call!

I may have gotten lucky, but wouldn't have happened if I didn't pick up the phone.

g/l to ya.

 

[ckd816]

Try looking up who your state veterinarian is. I looked mine up and it linked to contact info as well as pages for jobs/internships. Here's a website listing the state vets, though I don't know how up to date it is:

http://www.avma.org/disaster/state_pubhealth_vets.asp

Good luck!

 

[parietal]

It's nice to do some work with both your state public health vet (who works more on the human side usually for the Department of Health) and your state vet (who works more on the animal side usually for the Department of Agriculture or Board of Animal Health).

District vets are also great as they tend to go into the field more. You should be able to get a list from one of the previous two people if there isn't one available on your state ag department's website.

 

[sirbuckie]

Thanks guys! I will be doing alot of calling today. I knew SDN would be able to direct me in the right directions- you guys are great 🙂

 

[breenie]

I would recommend USDA-APHIS, as well. My friend's mom works for them as a vet, and gets to do lots of fun stuff (along with lots of paperwork). I've been chatting with her about just some shadowing and seeing what they do, but they also have actual paid jobs and summer internships available for students.

 

[parietal]

I would recommend USDA-APHIS, as well. My friend's mom works for them as a vet, and gets to do lots of fun stuff (along with lots of paperwork). I've been chatting with her about just some shadowing and seeing what they do, but they also have actual paid jobs and summer internships available for students.

As well as two awesome scholarship programs...

 

[Jessi Chris]

A topic I actually feel qualified to discuss....🙂

Think broadly. Don't just look for jobs where you'll be under the constant watch of a veterinarian. I currently have a pre-vet/public health friend that is helping her local health department do summer mosquito sprayings. It might seem mundane, but it's public health experience that has relevance to animals and humans. (It's all about the spin.)

One summer I almost helped ODH collect ticks (sadly, I was living in the dorm and would have no where to live and nothing to drive come June).

StudentJobs.Gov

The above website is a good source of seasonal positions for students. If you search for "Animal Health Technician" or "Biological Science Technician" periodically, you'll hit on some cool sounding positions all over the US and, sometimes, abroad.

FYI; Emergency management is huge right now. Go to the Dept. of Homeland Security's website and take the free Incident Command Systems training modules. It's really boring, but people working in the government may be impressed by such foresight. You get certificates as proof of completion (DHS also uses your SSN to track your course credits).

Last summer I landed a cool internship with USDA-APHIS-Veterinary Services at headquarters. I learned a ton about federal response to animal health emergencies. It was also an amazing networking experience and I'm still overwhelmed with the people I met. Seriously, one night I had dinner at a yacht club with a group of veterinarians, one was from U. Maryland and I tried to place why she looked so damned familiar... then I found out. She's on the back of one of the VS pamphlets I've had for a few years sitting in my "career folder."

The Downside to the Job: While I listened about, talked about, researched animals eight hours a day, five days a week for three months, only thrice did I actually get to be in physical proximity to actual animals. If you like the one-on-one with the beasts, the local field office or diagnostic laboratory would be the way to go if pursuing something with APHIS.

 

[goldnretrivrgrl]

Also, I don't know what your status is (undergrad, etc.) but my school is a large state school with an animal diagnostic lab affiliated with it. Not only do they run tests for the local dairy and poultry industries (assays to check for salmonella in milk samples, AGID for avian influenza, necropsy) but they also have many opportunities for research since they are part of a major university. I got in as a volunteer- you know, labeling tubes for PCR- but eventually completed two independent studies which both have significant implications for human public health as well as animal. If there is a facility like this near you I'd strongly suggest you offer your help and you might be surprised what you end up with. One of the vets overseeing my research is now one of my eLOR writers and has helped to open up a whole new field of vet med to me. 🙂

 

[kakurubird]

Just to add a question to a rather old thread...

When you guys found public health experiences with state vets, etc., did you just cold-email/call people? I feel so weird emailing people that high up and just asking, "hey, is there anything possible that I could see more about this?" (but obviously phrased better...) or is that really the best way to go about finding something?

Thanks!