Graduate Student Internship Program

2008 Catalog of Internship Opportunities

This internship is now open—Apply Today!

Assessing the needs of hard to reach populations

Program: Maternal and Child Health
Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services, Concord, NH
Skill Area: Program Evaluation

Agency Information

The Maternal and Child Health Section (MCH), located within the Division of Public Health Services in the NH Department of Health and Human Services will house the internship project. MCH funds over 20 community-based health care agencies to deliver prenatal, family planning, primary care and child health services to low income families across the state. In addition, the MCH Section houses the following programs: Injury Prevention, Healthy Child Care New Hampshire, Home Visiting, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Preschool Vision and Hearing, Newborn Screening, Early Hearing Detection Intervention and a HRSA-funded State Systems Development Initiative (SSDI) data linkage project.

Purpose, goals, and objectives of internship

Purpose: Evaluate poison prevention activities Goal 1: Review and modify previously developed evaluation plan for programs targeting 1) teen and substance abuse and/or 2) refugee families and home safety. Objective 1: Select hard-to-reach community. Objective 2: Review current evaluation plan. Evaluation plan for the teen and substance abuse prevention programs would include analyzing secondary data from previous education presentations and trainings (pre and post surveys). The evaluation plan for the refugee families and home safety would include 10-15 question phone survey and/or focus group of a dozen or so volunteers who work with refugee families; as well as, internal survey of call center staffs comfort with managing calls from non-English speaking populations. Objective 3: Recommend modifications and revise evaluation plan. Goal 2: Pilot the revised evaluation plan. Objective 1: Implement evaluation plan developed in Goal 1. Objective 2: Document any challenges or recommended changes to evaluation plan. Goal 3: Summarize findings from pilot evaluation. Objective 1: Write summary report of pilot evaluation. Objective 2: Present findings from pilot evaluation to community partners and public health professionals.

Data or analytic tasks and activities

Knowledge of survey design; Use of evaluation methods/tools; Develop analysis design (e.g., percent change in knowledge, summarizing qualitative data, etc.) with assistance from epidemiology staff; Write a report of evaluation plan.

Data or analytic skills required

Intern must possess basic skills in descriptive epidemiology and graphic data presentations as well as an understanding of program evaluation. Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access.

Supervisors

Melissa Heinen, RN, MPH Education and Research Coordinator, NH DHHS, MCH Section Data/Analytic background: MPH in Epidemiology with focus on injury. Previous employment as a Health Statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics.

Internship begins

Flexible

Housing

Temporary apartment rentals are available in the area. MCH can provide names of local realtors and apartment complexes to the student.

Transportation

The work site is accessible via limited public transportation; however, it would be ideal if the student had his/her own transportation (car or bicycle).