Center for Health & Research Transformation (CHRT)

Bridging Gaps within Healthcare

By Iridiana Magaña

Future Public Health Leaders Program

The FPHLP summer program is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded Undergraduate Public Health Scholars (CUPS) program. The goal of the CUPS programs is to prepare a diverse body of students to consider futures in public health in order to improve the field and create a diverse and better trained public health team. FPHLP (pronounced "flip") encourages students to pursue a career in public health by providing leadership training, an introduction to the various public health disciplines, internship experience, and community service events. A key component of the program is public health and career mentorship. Students get grouped into clusters of approximately 10 individuals and two mentors who are in different public health sectors. In addition to the cluster mentors, students have field site advisors who guide you in understanding a specialty in public health, say healthcare policy, through hands-on work. For my field site experience, I worked with the Center for Health & Research Transformation (see below). Lastly, during the last week of the program, students travel to Atlanta, GA to visit the CDC, meet other CUPS participants, attend roundtables with public health professionals, and present on their field placements.

Summer 2019 FPHLP scholars, University of Michigan – School of Public Health

Program Components

Mentorship

Mentorship begins on day one of the program. We begin by meeting our student mentors who are alums of the program. Then we are introduced to our cluster (mini-group) mentors. These are mentors we meet with once or twice a week to discuss how we are doing and any questions we may have. My mentors Cameron and Kristie came from two different sectors, one from a hospital setting and the other from community-based policy and interventions – and together they offered great insight into what the field of public health entails, while also sharing their values and aspirations.

Curriculum

Mondays and Fridays were workshop and seminar days designed to supplement knowledge of public health and aid in professional development. These workshops and seminars were led by UM–SPH faculty and staff, public health professionals, and community leaders. The workshops and seminars followed a weekly theme from learning about health disparities and epidemiology to applying to grad schools. Some weeks students would present on a topic, such as emergency preparedness.

Community Service

Every other Saturday, we participated in a community service project in Southeast Michigan. Projects ranged from visiting health departments to helping food shelters pack lunches and/or restock. During community service not only did we help out, but there was also a discussion component to it where we would discuss the upbringing of the organization we were working with and their growing missions, while brainstorming on public health interventions.

Research Project

We completed a community health needs assessment on maternal and child health, in which our cluster decided to include paternal health as well. The goal of the assessment was to expose us to an applied research methods for exploring and assessing the local community context. This project was designed to help us acquire additional public health skills and experiences that we may not be exposed to in our field placement and to help us apply what we learned in the workshops and seminars to a real-life setting. Our final work resulted in a white paper that was presented to Michigan Medicine stakeholders.

Field Experience

The primary purpose of the field placement was to provide students with an integrative public health learning experience, where we had the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge we acquired through the UM FPHLP Curriculum. I was placed at the Center for Healthcare Research and transformation (CHRT) where I contributed to various projects and learned more about the healthcare system in the U.S. This internship then motivated encouraged me to take a U.S. Healthcare and Policy course here at Mac.

Field Placement Site

Center for Health & Research Transformation

Ann Arbor, MI

CHRT is a non-profit organization that aims to advance health care delivery, the health of the population, and access to care. As a summer FPHLP intern at CHRT I worked with the Washtenaw Health Initiative (WHI) team. The WHI is a program guided by CHRT whose mission focuses on improving healthcare in Washtenaw County with an emphasis on the low-income, uninsured, and Medicaid populations. I had the opportunity to collaborate with several WHI project teams. Although the projects varied from topics, they all shared a similar theme – enhancing the health of communities.

Projects

Medicaid Enrollment, Eligibility & Outreach (MMOE)

Increase awareness and knowledge of health insurance coverage options for which people might be eligible under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Opioid Project: Opioid Provider Survey

Engage in qualitative analysis for the WHI Opioid Provider Survey to identify and to understand the challenges faced by medical providers when providing opioid related care.

State Innovation Model

Enhancing care coordination and addressing social determinants of health.
Community Care Coordination Intervention: Reducing and preventing high-utilization of the emergency department by addressing social needs through enhanced care coordination.

Outputs and Skills

Throughout my 8-week internship at CHRT I gained valuable skills that will guide me through my career.

Action Planning Budgeting

Census Mapping Critical Thinking

Qualitative Analysis Decision Making

Social Media & Graphics Task Management

What I Learned

Team-based learning and multidisciplinary approaches to address health equity
The role of stakeholders and their influence within health programs and interventions
Understanding how social determinants of health affect individual health outcomes
The interconnections between many career disciplines and Public Health
The importance of organizational collaboration within communities

Reflection

I am grateful to have worked with CHRT. This opportunity has allowed me to meet many Public Health professionals while learning more about the field. Understanding how social work, policy, and finance work together brings insight to the many perspectives one can come from when addressing the social determinants of health. FPHLP made we discover that I wanted to follow both a public health and medicine career path. This program encouraged me to never forget who I am and where I come from. It added great value to my remaining time at Macalester, as I was able to apply what I learned throughout the program into my classes, volunteer work, and internships. When you are in a room full of individuals who share common drive, values, and aspirations, you perceive that together you can help end health disparities and begin to bridge those gaps.

Iridiana Magaña

Hello, my name is Iridiana Magaña, I'm a graduating senior majoring in Biology with a Community and Global Health concentration. I call the south side of Chicago home, where I hope to take back skills learned in undergrad to help create public health interventions in my community. My long term goals are to attend medical school, serve the Chicago community, and improve access to maternal health services in rural communities of Mexico.

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