The world’s public health challenges are enormous.

While those issues are too big to swallow whole, Virginia Tech public health graduate students have broken some major challenges into bite-sized pieces. 

Earlier this month, several Master’s of Public Health students presented their Integrative Learning Experience projects to their peers and professors at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Talking about big ideas spurs initiative for more manageable projects that can be a microcosm for addressing larger issues. 

“We work with some of the most renowned gerontologists around so every week we have meetings and talk about dementia and the aspects of caregiving,” said Gracie Akers, who along with classmate Hanna Howell has worked with the Virginia Tech Center for Gerontology. “So our bosses came up with the idea of dementia-friendly towns, but it’s not easy to do that as a semester project.”

So Akers and Howell narrowed the scope to something they could study and advance in a few months.

“Restaurants would be a good way to start this,” Akers said, “and maybe it will catch on and maybe more will be dementia-friendly.”

After all, “Everybody deserves to have an enjoyable, positive dining experience,” said Hannah Howell during their presentation. 

Working with Warm Hearth Village’s food services, Akers and Howell created a “Dining with Dignity” guide offering tips to servers on how to help older guests with memory challenges. They have developed a training video and tip sheet to share with Warm Hearth personnel and also hope to reach out to New River Valley area restaurants.

Similarly, “Public Health Communications for Vector-Borne Disease Prevention in the Gulf South” might seem like a broad topic for a fairly wide area.

“We wanted to take some of these complex public health problems we have and turn them into short two-minute messages,” said Chris Boyd.

He and classmates Rebecca Christoff and Alex Sheppard, who worked with Gulf South VECTOR, presented on their studies of insect-borne diseases near the Gulf Coast and how to communicate with officials and the public about how to reduce the risks. 

The Public Health Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) helps students fulfill the requirements of the Master of Public Health degree. Each student team spends a semester working with an external partner organization on a public health project. 

Part of the program requirements is a presentation by individuals or small groups, each granted 10 minutes to summarize key findings or output from their projects.

(From left) Mi-Ju Han and Emma Hare presenting at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine for the Masters of Public Health Integrated Learning Experience presentations.
(From left) Mi-Ju Han and Emma Hare presenting on “Exposure to violence and substance use as precursors to incarceration” at the Master of Public Health Integrated Learning Experience presentations. Photo by Madison Brown for Virginia Tech.
Members of the Public Health faculty at the Masters of Public Health Integrated Learning Experience presentations
Members of the Public Health faculty at the Master of Public Health Integrated Learning Experience presentations. Photo by Madison Brown for Virginia Tech.

Projects presented this semester included:

  • Quality improvement process looking as PPE compliance and hospital acquired infections in 2 hospital units, Ahmad Al Aloosi.
  • Teaching One Health and communicating science to VT professors and faculty, Elizabeth Fox.
  • Meta-analysis on the impacts of flooding on birth weight and gestational length meta-analysis, with supplementary literature review on waterborne infections during perinatal periods, Elly Loyd.
  • Exposure to violence and substance use as precursors to incarceration, Mi-Ju Han  and Emma Hare.
  • Rockbridge Area Prevention Coalition strategic plan revamp, Harper Knick and Bailee Heatwole
  • Creating and implementing program evaluation methodology- Community Resiliency Model (CRM), Samar Elsaadawy and Brooke Rogers.Health education resources for employee wellness programs in Cooperative Extension, Julie Carlson and Sarah Suplee.
  • River Street Education food access impacts and food safety at the Farmers Market, Phionah Atukunda, Kayla Fay, and Terryonna Smith.
  • Bloodborne pathogens/STDS, Kayla Mbanzendore, Cassidy Miller, and Farah Iqbal.
  • Electronic clinical quality measures: Workflow design, identification of opportunity, and proposed interventions, Tylis Johnson, Jackson Walsh, and Sydney Thompson.
  • Well and spring water quality, treatment, and associated health outcomes in rural Virginia and Tennessee, Claire Cohen, Brooke Nazar, and Victor Spera.
  • Evaluating access to veterinary care and barriers for pet owners in the New River Valley, Sadie Stott, Briana Thompson, and Gabriella Smith.
  • Public health preparedness for pathogens of public health importance, Grayson Watson, Kelly Ribeiro, and Andrew Schroff.

 

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