Many different organizations are involved in protecting the public’s health. Here is a chance for you to learn about public health approaches to disease prevention and to become familiar with one organization and the issues that it addresses. In your text you can learn about local, state, and national governmental health agencies and about their private sector partners: community health centers, foundations, associations, and other health facilities. This semester your task is to delve into a public health organization and become an expert on it. You can tell us what you have learned and use this information in your career. Most of the assignments below are related to your Individual Research Paper.
On writing: The UMUC Writing Center is a great resource for advice on how to improve your writing and follow APA style - https://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/index.cfm Be in control of your career – learn how to write. Most health employers will not consider your resumes and emails if you do make grammatical mistakes. Use this time in school to improve your writing.
The Departmental Late Policy is stated in the syllabus. Please reread and follow it.
Assignment Descriptions
1. Assignment 1. Learn about the history and current condition (Course Objective 1) of a public health problem. Pick one Public Health Achievement from the list in Chapter 1 of the Great Public Health Achievements – United States, 1900-1999. In three double spaced pages find statistics that show why it is/was a problem and analyze how public health policies and/or interventions have addressed the problem. Your paper must include citations and references where appropriate and follow APA guidelines.
2. Assignment 2. Pick a public health agency that will be the focus of your research major individual research paper. You may pack a whole agency, e.g., The American Heart Association, The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Health Resources and Services Administration or The National Cancer Institute (HHS), or a state or health agency. Or, you may pick a specific part of an agency, e.g., the infectious disease unit of a local health department or CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response or the Bureau of Health Professions, HRSA. You may not pick the same agency as your team project. Research that agency. In three double spaced pages, explain the agency’s or unit’s mission and history, its organization and responsibilities, and its major sources of financing. Identify a person to interview (see Major Individual Research Paper). Your paper must include citations and references where appropriate and follow APA guidelines. I will choose the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. I will interview Ms. Stacian Davis.
3. Assignment 3. You have read about the social determinants of health, community health planning, programming, and needs assessment, and prevention. In 6 to 10 PowerPoint slides show how the activities of the agency or unit that you are studying for your Major Research Paper addresses at least one of these concepts. Imagine that you are using these slides to train new agency or unit employees on these concepts and their application at work. Include a reference slide if needed.
Graded Discussion
Post a recent (past 5 years) research article from a peer-reviewed journal that is relevant to one of the topics that can be used for the major individual research paper. Summarize the article and explain how it is relevant to the research topic(s). Post your analysis (no more than one screen – equal to one double spaced page). Do not attach it as a word document.
Major Individual Research Paper - 50 points
The paper's purpose is to expose you to public health practice. The length of the paper should be six double-spaced pages, not including the title page, references, or interview questions and thank you note. The paper must meet all APA standards and your references must include at least five peer-reviewed journal articles. Grading criteria will include organization, the depth of fact-finding, the depth of analysis, sophistication of thinking, strength and clarity of writing, paper formatting, and the degree to which the paper followed the published guidelines. See the Standardized Writing Rubric in the Course Content for specific criteria.
Interview a manager or staff person in your identified public health agency or unit (see Assignment 2) about a program that they work in. You should ask them about their background, how and why they work in a public health program, their responsibilities, their leadership style, and some of the challenges that they face. Your interview can be online (written questions emailed to a person, phone, or in person).
If you do not know the person, be sure to introduce yourself when you contact them. Tell them that your interview will take no more than 15 minutes. Provide them with 10-12 questions ahead of time. Do not ask them more than 12 questions – they are busy people. After the interview, send them a Thank You note. Some interview guidelines can be found at http://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/interviews.htm and http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/interviewGuidelines.html
For your paper, building on what you wrote in Assignment 2,
· Who did you interview and what is their job title? Who do they report to in the agency and are they in a particular unit in the agency?
· What are their major responsibilities, and how do they relate to the agency’s missions and responsibilities as you described in Assignment 2?
- Analyze their leadership style using some of the leadership skills discussed in the Week 6 lectures and texts. What is their leadership style?
· Use the text and the literature analyze the challenges that they face. Review the literature to see if other areas or agencies face similar challenges.
· Provide a copy of the Interview Questions and the Thank You note that you sent to the person that you interviewed.
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Participation Rubric (evaluation criteria used for grading student participation)Conference Participation |
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Demonstrated Leadership: A |
Demonstrated Understanding: B |
Shows up: C |
Intermittently logs in: F |
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Quality participation |
Consistently, concisely and clearly stated new ideas to discuss; contributes solutions to the questions with APA citations from current, peer-reviewed journals; analyzes and evaluates from many positions; consistently uses case studies/examples from interviews or experiences; graduate-level composition; contribute valuable insight based on recent related research. |
Concisely demonstrates completion of all readings and discussions before posting; demonstrated critical thinking; develops own ideas; graduate level writing. |
Logs in with interesting discussions during the week. |
Repeats material discussed by another student; generalities; long discussions; inconsistent presence in discussions; copied/pasted material directly from website without attribution and explanation, inconsistent classroom presence, one liners |
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Generated discussion |
Concisely summarizing and moving on with new issues based on the discussion and current literature; takes leadership role in individual discussion |
Referenced outside sources; used APA format; integrated experiences or interviews; offers current related research and applies these to discussions often each week. |
Posts URLs and short comments |
Off topic, unreferenced statements; old references; distracting statements; unexplained logic to analysis; URLs posted without discussion. personal/social material; off the topic; jumps in to fill space late in the week |
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