Each person who works in a public health sector is expected to contribute to the public health work by proposing certain initiatives, or by patiently working in directions that will eventually lead to significant results in the public health area. To succeed in my profession, I have set some professional goals that match public health topic areas and Preventive Medicine Fellowship (PMF) assignments: infection control, chronic disease prevention, and promotion of healthy ways.
Infection control is the first professional goal of mine that deals with the prevention of any-type infections occurring in the area. I believe that I will master this sub-discipline of epidemiology since PMF can provide the experience that will help me enhance my ability “to bridge medicine and public health” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017, para. 1). Thus, I will acquire specific skills necessary to be able to provide the infection control.
The chronic disease prevention, which is my second goal, is a huge problem in the US. Bauer, Briss, Goodman, and Bowman (2014) even named it a “burden” because chronic diseases are generally agreed to be the cause of health problems, disability, or death, and every second American has at least one chronic disease (p. 45). PMF graduates are taught to be leaders in disease prevention, which is why I think PMF can help me achieve my goal in this direction (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016).
Promotion of healthy ways is a third professional goal of mine. Promotion of this type requires certain skills in management. PMF provides the activities that help its residents to grow and apply management and leadership skills (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). This is another fact, which proves that PMF will help me deepen my experience and achieve my goal.
Being a registered nurse at the moment, I have a public health experience in chronic disease prevention in the past. To be precise, when I was an intern I took part in the following projects implemented in Cobb County, Georgia: tobacco ordinance, tobacco free schools, asthma control in child day-cares. Although the government supervised the projects, the hospitals’ employees were also invited to contribute to their implementation.
Smoking is a recognized problem in Georgia. According to Cobb2020 (2017), over eleven thousand Georgians die every year because of tobacco use. Moreover, tobacco “drains $1.2 billion from the economy” (Cobb2020, 2017, para. 1). In 2005, the state law first prohibited smoking in enclosed public and work places (Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, 2017). To affect the society, my health care organization was assigned to shoot a public service commercial and explain how harmful smoking is, by providing specific numbers on the problem. It turned out that “131,000 of Georgia’s youth will die prematurely from tobacco use,” and among eight smokers who die, there is one non-smoker (Cobb2020, 2017, para. 2). Thus, my organization contributed to distributing information that may help people to think about their health.
The statistics data, as well as my medical experience, showed that asthma had been a huge problem for the US people for a long time. Some believe that smoking is one of the triggers for asthma disease. Although it is generally agreed that there is no cure for the disease, many people believe that pain can be lessened if the number of smokers reduces. In fact, according to Ciaccio, Gurley-Calvez, and Shireman (2016), “the indoor smoking legislation was associated with a 17% decrease in the incidence of severe asthma emergency department (ED) visits” (p. 643). In the health organization where I worked as an intern, we also noticed that the number of the asthma ED visits has reduced. To help the governmental survey, we were assigned to interview those patients about their observations. We found out that almost all of them used to be second-hand smokers before the indoor smoking legislation. This demonstrates my part in the tobacco ordinance project.
Another project that I was a part of is the “Tobacco free schools” project. Interns of my hospital were assigned to particular schools to promote no smoking policy among the youth. We were to explain the risks of smoking, promote a healthy lifestyle, and demonstrate the statistics data, focusing on younger kids. This is because the average age to start smoking is from ten to thirteen (Cobb2020, 2017). We were also assigned to instruct parents not to smoke at their houses because in Georgia, about “423,000 youth are exposed to secondhand smoke at home” (Cobb2020, 2017, para. 3). Such involvement is not a new tradition and is not the initiative of Georgia solely. Since the 1990s, Americans have been forming communities to promote changes in the existing education system requiring to improve physical education in schools. (Bunnell, 2012). This demonstrates my role in creating the tobacco free schools.
Despite the fact that mentioned projects were entirely governmental initiatives, the health care organizations have also attempted to contribute by shooting public announcements, interviewing patients, promoting non-smoking policy among young generation. Thus, I can say that I personally played my part in public health practice in Cobb County, Georgia.
References
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. (2017). Georgia. Web.
Bauer, U., Briss, P., Goodman, R., & Bowman, B. (2014). Prevention of chronic disease in the 21st century: elimination of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability in the USA. The Lancet, 384(9937), 45-52.
Bunnell, R., O’Neil, D., Soler, R., Payne, R., Giles, W. H., Collins, J., & Bauer, U. (2012). Fifty communities putting prevention to work: accelerating chronic disease prevention through policy, systems and environmental change. Journal of Community Health, 37(5), 1081-1090.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Application Information. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Overview. Web.
Ciaccio, C. E., Gurley-Calvez, T., & Shireman, T. I. (2016). Indoor tobacco legislation is associated with fewer emergency department visits for asthma exacerbation in children. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 117(6), 641-645.
Cobb2020. (2017). Tobacco prevention. Web.