Regina Glover
CHP 468: Internship
Professor Luisa Lucero
The internship took place at the Old Dominion University Center for Global Health in the College of Health Sciences building in Norfolk, Virginia. The Center for Global Health was established in 2012, it is a community leader focused on research, service, and education to improve the quality of health for people locally and internationally. The mission is to positively impact health and well-being through collaborations of faculty, students, communities, and other partners. Vision is to improve people’s health and quality of life on a local and global basis by leveraging Hampton Roads’ unique strengths in education, research, and outreach (Old Dominion University, 2018). Core values are health equity, inclusiveness, interdisciplinary, and knowledge-driven (Center for Global Health Old Dominion University, 2014).
Health equity is the guiding principle for the ODU Global Health Center. We aspire for all persons to have the opportunity to attain optimal health and for no one to be disadvantaged by social, political, economic, and/or cultural limitations. ODU’s Center for Global Health values inclusiveness, thereby promoting an environment for teaching, learning, practice, and research that facilitates the accomplishments of diverse persons (Center for Global Health Old Dominion University, 2014). We strive to take into account the different needs and strengths of individuals from diverse backgrounds. We seek to advance global health through global collaborations and partnerships that transcend cultural borders (Center for Global Health Old Dominion University, 2014).
We espouse an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, learning, practice, research, and service. Cultivate and promote interdisciplinary collaborations across campus, as well as collaborations with other institutions and communities, to improve health both locally and abroad. All the products the ODU’s Center for Global Health generates are grounded in the principles of scientific rigor and evidence-based knowledge (Center for Global Health Old Dominion University, 2014). One of the main initiatives of the center is the implementation of a new graduate-level online certification program that can be completed in one year. The competency-based certificate program provides comprehensive training in the global health field for graduate students and professionals who are practicing or plan to practice in a worldwide setting (Center for Global Health Old Dominion University, 2014).
The certification is also available to disciplines outside of the healthcare field (Center for Global Health Old Dominion University, 2014). The center aims to create research collaborations with academia and community partners locally and globally and increase faculty and student engagement in global health. Also, works with many local NGOs, including Physicians for Peace and Operation Smile. Goals to develop solutions to global health challenges through multidisciplinary research, education, and service and to disseminate these solutions locally and globally (ODU Center for Global Health, 2015). I will be describing the projects I have worked on during my time with the ODU Center for Global Health.
I was instructed to develop a questionnaire for the Healthy Chesapeake Food Connection survey. My preceptor, Michelle A. Kekeh, told me which websites to use and find questions about demographics like race and other information about the farmers market distance and how many times people go to the farmers market per week. Also, did two spreadsheets in excel by finding the frequencies from the survey results. I put the information into categories and then plugged in the numbers. The numbers are from one to five based on the question’s response.
After I found the frequencies, I created a histogram to display the results. The last project I worked on is the C2C Ghana project on handwashing. Phase one of the project I had to write a script about my interests in global and the C2C Ghana project. Then I had to rehearse the script to get feedback on areas I did well and what I need to improve on. Finally, was able to shoot the video to be shown for the boys and girls in Ghana.
Phase two of the project focuses on the literature review. For this part, I looked up information on handwashing and infectious diseases. There were interesting articles about infectious diseases from people not washing their hands. Phase three of the project is to create games to be implemented in Ghana. I had a meeting with two peers to discuss each other’s game ideas.
All of our games had similar ideas, but we each had difficulties finding something unique. One game I came up with is a card game that will have pictures of the handwashing steps and symptoms. My peers came up with a poster that will have pictures and steps. Some considerations to consider when creating the games were the budget, lack of technology in Ghana, and materials needed. Finally, decided on the games and will be implementing them next week.
A significant issue at the Center of Global Health is maintaining sustainability. This means there is a lack of funding, grants, and better funding revenue. Sustainability refers to the company’s ability of future generations to meet their needs. Organizations pursue the “triple bottom line”: economic, social, and environmental benefits. Stakeholders refer to shareholders, the community, customers, employees, and all other parties that have an interest in seeing that the company succeeds (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 16).
Sustainability includes the ability to deal with economic and social changes, practice environmental responsibility, engage in responsible and ethical business practices, provide high-quality products and services, and put in place methods to determine if the company is meeting stakeholders’ needs (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 16). It can be difficult to mobilize an organization for planning, especially if there is not a pressing financial crisis motivating planning. The leaders of the planning process must make the stakeholders aware of the need for planning and create a desire to participate. Presenting revenue and expenditure forecasts can be challenging because they can distract the governing board with questions of forecast precision and assumption validity instead of how to develop strategies to achieve and maintain financial sustainability (Kavanagh, 2007).
This derails the planning process as the board becomes focused on scrutinizing the forecasts and not on recognizing potential future financial imbalances and how to solve them. Long-term financial planning is a comprehensive effort and obtaining the resources to do a thorough job can be daunting. Ideally, financial planning will become a standard feature of the organization’s financial management and governance. Institutionalizing planning is difficult because it requires several diverse solutions (Kavanagh, 2007).
Any organization faces two important competitive market challenges in deciding what to pay its employees: product market competition and labor market competition. First, organizations must compete effectively in the product market. They must be able to sell their goods and services at a quantity and price that will bring a sufficient return on investment (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 461). Organizations compete on multiple dimensions (quality, service, and so on), and the price is one of the most important dimensions. An important influence of price is the cost of production (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 461).
A second important competitive market challenge is labor market competition, which reflects the number of workers available relative to the number of jobs available. Shortages and surpluses influence pay (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 462). Corporate and human sustainability is widely recognized as a complex problem, in 2009 the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America published a paper in its proceedings that demonstrated the level of complexity required to reach a sustainable human society. According to Metcalf and Benn, in order to achieve sustainability, leaders of organizations must recognize that organizations operate in a wider complex adaptive system(s). This wider system(s) is complex interconnected and dynamic environmental, economic, and social systems within which businesses are embedded as agents (Metcalf & Benn, 2013).
When I was talking to MyNgoc Nguyen, the program manager at the center, she said the problem is human resources. At the center, it is only Dr.Kekeh and her doing the majority of work for various projects. Another person was helping them in the past but left. I feel bad for MyNgoc and Dr.Kekeh because their jobs are very demanding and stressful. Theories of stress and coping describes the type of pressure that MyNgoc and Dr.Kekeh are under. Stress is the response of body, mind, and behaviors (Dinh & Durgampudi, 2017).
Stress as a result of encountering environmental events (stressors), interpreting these events, and making judgments about controlling or influencing these events (Dinh & Durgampudi, 2017). Stressors are demands made by the internal or external environment that upset balance, thus affecting physical and psychological well-being and requiring action to restore balance (University of Twente, 2018). There are two types of stressors: life events/life change events and chronic stressors. Life events/life change are discrete, observable, and objectively reportable events that require some social and/or psychological adjustment on the part of the individual. Chronic stressors are events in everyday life, more prevalent (University of Twente, 2018).
When faced with a stressor, a person evaluates the potential threat (primary appraisal). Primary appraisal is a person’s judgment about the significance of an event as stressful, positive, controllable, and challenging or irrelevant. Facing a stressor, secondary appraisal follows, which is an assessment of people’s coping resources and options (University of Twente, 2018). Secondary appraisal addresses what one can do about the situation. Actual copying efforts aimed at regulation of the problem give rise to outcomes of the coping process (University of Twente, 2018).
Coping is dealing with and attempting to overcome problems and difficulties. In psychology used as a thought process, a personality characteristic, and in a social context. There are two types of coping: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused coping based on one’s capability to think and alter the environment event or situation. Emotion-focused coping based on focusing inward on altering the way one thinks or feels about a situation or event (Dinh & Durgampudi, 2017). Problem-focused coping would be more helpful to Dr. Kekeh and MyNgoc because it utilizes problem-solving skills, interpersonal conflict resolution, time management, goal setting, and advice seeking. Emotion-focused coping would not help in this situation by denying the stressful situation (Dinh & Durgampudi, 2017).
For the human resources aspect, the organization needs to find the best set of workers for meeting their strategic objectives, attract those workers to their companies, and then get them to stay long enough to obtain some return on their investment. First, must have a clear idea of their current configuration of human resources. They need to know the strengths and weaknesses of their present stock of employees (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 184). Second, organizations must know where they are going in the future and be aware of how present their configuration of human resources relates to the configuration that will be needed. Third, where there are discrepancies between the present configuration and the configuration required for the future, organizations need programs that will address these discrepancies (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p. 184).
One last thing MyNgoc told me was the lack of technology and equipment. When I did the video for the C2C Ghana project, the center did not have any equipment to record the video. So MynNgoc had to go through with Irv, the marketing person for the College of Health Science building to record. This relates to the funding issues because they do not have the budget for equipment and other resources. It would be great for the center to address these issues as they move forward with other projects that may require resources.
The global interactions and responsibilities of this organization are relationships with community partners. The center participates in many research and service projects throughout Hampton Roads, nationally, and internationally. Had opportunities to collaborate with local community leaders like the Norfolk Department of Public Health and international leaders like Physicians for Peace. These collaborations have given both the faculty and students the opportunity to network, participate in projects, and grow partnerships while finding solutions and avenues to improve health (Center for Global Health, 2017).
Global Health Heroes Program was a collaboration between the ODU Center for Global Health and the Horizon’s summer program to help educate students on the importance of global health and how it relates to their personal health behaviors. The 2016 Mosquito Control and Surveillance was a collaboration between the ODU Center for Global Health, the Norfolk Department of Public Health, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School MPH program. The objective was to give undergraduate and graduate students first-hand experience in the field of vector control and surveillance (Center for Global Health, 2017). Students performed: backyard inspections, laboratory work, mosquito identification, source reduction techniques, and community outreach. NIDA Educational program as part of the National Institute of Drug Abuse Education week, ODU Center for Global Health hosted an educational event to help teens better understand the risks with alcohol and drug abuse (Center for Global Health, 2017).
Overall, I enjoyed my time interning at the Center for Global Health (ODU). Throughout my internship, I interacted with various people at the center who shared their passion for global health issues and help guide me on various projects. I was able to have an opportunity to develop new skills outside of the hospital setting where I volunteered previously. The new skills I learned so far is developing a questionnaire survey, writing a literature review, creating a handwashing game for implementation, video recording, and a little bit of coding. I would get feedback from Dr. Kekeh and MyNgoc on areas I did well on and other areas to improve upon.
I will carry the new skills I learned during my time as an intern as I go to graduate school to pursue a career as a hospital administrator. Recommendations for the center is to hire new people with a research background to help with the workload. It is very stressful to see two people take on heavy workloads without getting help. Another recommendation is having more on and off campus activities. The activities could be about skills that college students may need going into the workforce.
References
Center for Global Health. (2017). Retrieved from Research & Service: https://www.odu.edu/hs/centers/globalhealth/research-service#tab51=1
Center for Global Health Old Dominion University. (2014, April 1). Retrieved from Strategic Plan: https://www.odu.edu/content/dam/odu/col-dept/center-global-health/docs/CGH_STRATEGIC%20PLAN_Apr1_2014.pdf
Dinh, J., & Durgampudi, P. (2017, March 14). Chapter 6: Theories of Stress and Coping [Power Point Slides]. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Kavanagh, S. (2007). The Road To Financial Sustainability. Government Finance Review, 6-14.
Metcalf, L., & Benn, S. (2013). Leadership for Sustainability: An Evolution of Leadership Ability. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(3), 369-384.
Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. (2017). Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage (10 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
ODU Center for Global Health. (2015, August 20). Retrieved from Fact Sheet: https://www.odu.edu/content/dam/odu/col-dept/center-global-health/docs/cgh_fact_sheet_08.20.2015.pdf
Old Dominion University. (2018, January 1). Retrieved from Center for Global Health: about: https://www.odu.edu/hs/centers/globalhealth/about
The University of Twente. (2018, December 11). Retrieved from Transactional Model of Stress and Coping: https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Health-Communication/transactional-model-of-stress-and-coping/