As health administrator at the Bradley Free Clinic in Roanoke, Caitlin Sharkey, who earned her Master of Public Health in 2023, puts her education into practice every day — literally. 

What started as an assignment has become part of the clinic’s standard operating procedure as Sharkey adapted a project she completed as part of her master's degree into an infection control plan.  

The Master of Public Health (MPH) program is housed within the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, which emphasizes a One Health framework. One Health is the principle that human, environmental, and animal health are inextricably linked. 

As part of her Infection Prevention and Control class, Audrey Ruple, associate professor of quantitative epidemiology and Metcalf Professor of Veterinary Medical Informatics, asked her students to create an infection control plan for a setting of their choice. 

Sharkey chose the Bradley Free Clinic, where she’s been involved since she began an internship in January 2020 as a public health major at Roanoke College. 

Founded in 1974, the Bradley Free Clinic provides free medical, dental, behavioral health, and pharmacy services in the Roanoke Valley. Health care professionals volunteer to provide services to people with low income, no insurance, or with Medicaid, and a large portion of the clinic’s patients are refugees and immigrants. 

Fast-forward to early 2023, and, as a newly minted health administrator, Sharkey was in the process of updating the clinic’s standard operating procedures for the new year. She discovered the infection control plan was minimal and needed substantial revision. 

"Throughout the clinic, this plan is the standard for infection prevention and control of bloodborne and airborne pathogens,” Sharkey said. “In the population we serve, we have many patients who have hepatitis C and HIV, so it's very important to not only have the proper precautions in place to prevent infection, but also to know what to do in case there is an exposure.”

Sometimes, the worst-case scenario actually happens. The infection control plan came into play last summer, when a student volunteer was injured by a used needle. Thanks to Sharkey’s plan, clinic staff had clear and specific guidelines to follow. Both student and patient received immediate testing, and the student was referred to a local hospital to receive post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent contracting HIV. 

"Principles of Infectious Disease is where I learned about all of these disease states, and Infection Prevention and Control is where I learned what you do when exposure happens — every class I took in my two years of the MPH went into this infection control plan,” said Sharkey. 

As health administrator at the clinic, Sharkey wears many hats. She handles scheduling and onboarding for about 300 volunteers, including students from the clinic’s partnerships with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, and Virginia Western Community College. She’s responsible for compliance with Medicaid, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, privacy rules, and local, state, and federal laws. She also manages the clinic’s electronic health records and IT needs. 

She applies her lessons from her Master of Public Health to multiple facets of her job, including, for example, the ability perform a more robust analysis of the data for grant writing and state reporting purposes.  

One major focus of the degree program is the social determinants of health, which are nonmedical factors that influence health, such as poverty, housing and food security, and employment. Over recent years, the Bradley Free Clinic has shifted to include social determinants of health when treating patients. For example, the clinic uses a recent grant to provide patients with rideshare transportation for appointments, grocery trips, and more. Sharkey said this approach looks at “the whole person.”

“Nobody's worried about what their A1C [blood sugar level] is if they don't know when their next meal is going to be,” Sharkey said. “They're not worrying about eating something healthy — they're just making sure they have something to eat. Addressing those issues is the first step in being able to take care of the patient in the manner that they need.”

In her work at the Bradley Free Clinic, Sharkey lives the Virginia Tech motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). 

When the pandemic hit the United States in spring 2020, Sharkey was an intern at the clinic. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work screening patients and providing testing in a tent outside the building. Through the hard work of volunteers like Sharkey, the clinic never closed its doors. 

When the COVID-19 vaccine became readily available, the clinic was awarded a grant to provide free vaccines regardless of insurance status. Sharkey was named COVID vaccine director, promoting the vaccine, educating patients on its efficacy, and reporting vaccination numbers to state authorities. 

Sharkey had previously intended to become a physician assistant, but after interning at the clinic, she realized her passion was in administration. To take on more responsibility at the clinic and pursue a career in administration, she would need a graduate degree. Hannah Menefee, the public health program coordinator at the time, visited Sharkey’s class at Roanoke College to talk about the Master of Public Health program, and Sharkey applied the next day. 

When Sharkey entered the program, she discovered a passionate — and compassionate — learning environment.  

"My professors really cared about public health,” Sharkey said. “They didn't care about memorizing things for a test, they wanted to create people who cared about public health and were going into the community to make a difference when we left."

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