Competency MPH 9: Design a population-based poilicy, program, project, or internvetion

I achieved this competency in my applied learning experience (APE) by developing an outreach program to increase enrollment and retention of Hispanic families in Virginia’s public health insurance program. The program uses evidence-based interventions to reach the target population and requires a diverse team of professionals for implementation. The courses that provided me with the skills to achieve this competency are Research Methods in Public Health (MPH 616) and Mixed Methods Research in Health Promotion (MPH 670). I was responsible for developing a research proposal to implement a public health intervention in both courses, which required

• selecting a target population
• completing a literature review
• setting goals and aims, and a study design
• development of survey tools
• provide information on data collection and analysis
• discuss ethical practices
• provide a rationale for my project
• discuss the potential impact of the intervention

For Research Methods in Public Health, I designed a randomized control trial using gamification to increase the daily step count of persons living in Western Branch, Chesapeake. For Mixed Methods Research in Health Promotion, I assisted in developing an explanatory sequential study to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among international college students and explore their experiences of food insecurity and the use of on-campus food resources. The courses and assignments provided the processes essential to developing population-based programs, projects, and interventions. While I felt overwhelmed at first, as this was my first attempt at creating population-based projects, upon reflection, I know methodically working through the steps achieves efficiency and program effectiveness.

Competency MPH 13: Propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes

 I proposed strategies to my APE site supervisor that effectively build partnerships to enhance program development, implementation, and effectiveness. I proposed to include engaging in population health outreach events to grow their professional network. By expanding its network, the organization can connect with key stakeholders and organizations whose mission and vision align with the agency’s program. Also, speaking to community residents as they are a source of valuable information and are the potential gatekeeper to the community. Once identified, the agency needs to reach out and engage with stakeholders, community organizations, and gatekeepers. The agency must invite the organizations and people to participate in program planning, development, implementation, and assessment to build partnerships and coalitions. After communicating with my site supervisor, I engaged in population health outreach efforts and networked with other organizations and community residents that attended the event. I was able to identify stakeholders that would help create and implement my APE project.

Additionally, I was able to speak to community residents. I received valuable input that I could incorporate into my project. Listening to the community members’ feedback about my project will assist in reducing barriers associated with enrolling and maintaining public health insurance coverage for the target population.

The course that provided me with the skills necessary to propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions is Social Marketing for Health Populations (MPH 630). My final project for this class was to develop a social marketing campaign using the social exchange theory framework to reduce the sitting time among office workers during the workday. The final proposal includes the following components:

• Discussed the problem, which included a literature review
• Audience segmentation
• Development of campaign focus, goals, and aims,
• Created a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis
• Identified barriers, benefits, motivators, competition, and influential others for the campaign
• Constructed the social marketing strategy, which includes
  • Positioning
  • Marketing Mix (product, prince, place promotion; 4Ps)
• Wrote the creative brief
• Discussed ethical considerations

By working on this project, I had to consider how to identify, engage, and promote my social marketing campaign to stakeholders to achieve sustainability. Some of the key stakeholders I identified for this project include businesses, insurance companies, local health departments, and office gatekeepers. I consider Social Marketing for Health Promotions a challenging class but very vital for public health. The challenges stemmed from my inexperience as I did not know about the field of social marketing. This class taught an organized method of developing health promotion programs to change health behaviors.

Competency MPH 21: Perform effectively on interprofessional teams

In my APE experience, I had opportunities to connect and work with people to plan and develop the project. In addition to my site supervisor, I was able to work with contacts at local non-profits, community outreach workers, hospital care workers, and social service workers. Effectively performing with an interprofessional team requires clear communication, time management skills, situational awareness, problem-solving abilities, flexibility, an open mind, and trust. Due to the pandemic, using technology became mandatory to complete parts of the project, hold meetings, and communicate regularly.

From my coursework in Systems Thinking and Health Management (MPH 615), I completed four assignments in which I had to:

• address problems through systems thinking perspective
• integrate many individual perspectives
• translate those perspectives into a model to show interconnectedness, and
• be able to interpret relationships within and among systems.

Additionally, the class assigned an Interprofessional Experience component which required working with students outside of the MPH program to develop a persuasive argument for using limited public health funds on a given public health topic. The team had to communicate regularly, share in tasks and work, and perspective-taking to be successful. This class and the assignments provided information and valuable tools that continue to help me as I work on public health planning and promotion programs. I learned how to create causal loops, Ishikawa (fishbone) diagrams, and logic models to visualize complicated relationships and help me explain complex relationships and influences to communities.

Competency HPRO 1: Plan or recommend a health communication or health promotion project that addresses the needs of the priority population

For my practicum, I developed a health promotion project to increase enrollment and retention of Hispanic children in public health insurance programs in Virginia. Children with comprehensive health care coverage have improved overall health status and higher education attainment, contributing to better employment outcomes. Also, Hispanic children are at increased risk of being uninsured and staying uninsured for longer than other minority groups. Additionally, I developed bilingual health communication materials for Hispanic families, detailing the application process, eligibility requirements, and the advantages of having health insurance for their children.

The course that prepared me to work on this project is Social Marketing for Health Populations (MPH630). To ensure the campaign’s success,  I developed it using a theoretical framework and evidence-based interventions. Also, I needed to create health promotion materials within a positioning statement and marketing mix that would make behavior change appealing to my target audience.

Social Marketing for Health Promotions challenged me to apply marketing principles used to sell a physical product or service and apply them to behavior change. However, the entire class is devoted to breaking down each step to provide an exceptionally systematic way of developing a social marketing campaign to facilitate behavior change.

Competency HPRO 4: Construct effective approached to communicate or disseminsate health promotion content to relevant audiences

While working on my practicum project, I completed this competency, developing an outreach program to increase enrollment and retention of Hispanic children in public health insurance programs by first conducting a literature review to learn about barriers and facilitators to health behavior change. After the literature review, I spoke with health outreach workers, social workers, and clinic employees to determine specific barriers that prevent the target population from initiating and maintaining behavior change. From the literature, I learned that the barriers my target population face are

• lack of awareness
• the belief that health care coverage offers marginal benefits when compared to the costs associated with the application/reapplication process
• language barriers

At the local level, I learned that the target population does not engage in applying or maintaining children’s health care coverage due to

• concerns with approval for immigration paperwork
• technological barriers
• forced moves due to financial instability
• lack of bilingual print materials

I created bilingual print materials to increase awareness about available public health insurance programs and eligibility requirements based on these barriers. Also, I included messages that emphasized child well-being as a benefit of maintaining health care coverage. Finally, I highlighted the value of reporting address changes to the department of social services as a way to receive critical communications and renewal materials. I also provided four ways to apply for health care coverage and report contact information changes: in-person, phone, mail, and online. For the print materials to reach the target audience, I worked with my site supervisor to print and hand out information at an outreach event. I also reached out to community organizations for permission to leave print materials at their building and sites.

The course that prepared me to work on this competency is Social Marketing for Health Populations (MPH630). To develop a practical approach to disseminating health promotion content to my target audience, I needed to understand:

• the public health problem
• the target audience
• the barriers to behavior change

I also needed to tailor and frame my messages and choose the best pathways to disseminate health information. My final assignment for this class included these components, and the coursework leading up to drafting my final project provided me with the skills needed to carry out each task. Social Marketing for Health Populations helped me develop the skills required to create successful health behavior promotion campaigns.