Are Public Health Professions and Healthcare Careers the Same?
Last year, I wrote a very personal blog about my journey to find the path of public health. I often advise undergraduate and graduate students as they try to navigate degree paths to help others. During advising appointments, my goal is to set students up on an educational track that will use their passions and gifts as they serve the world around them. Some students have a heart for one-on-one care for the sick and others prefer population health and disease prevention. Recently, the Association of Schools & Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) shared an insightful post highlighting the distinction between public health and healthcare careers within different categories. I thought it would be helpful to share on my blog as another resource for students trying to determine their degree paths. It is also informative for anyone interested in learning how to define public health and healthcare professions. The list below is from ASPPH and helps distinguish between jobs in public health and healthcare.
A 99.9% Survival Rate?! How to Understand Disease Calculations and Interpretations
If I think back to when the pandemic first started, I remember being surprised when I started hearing so many people use epidemiologic terminology such as mortality rate, survival rate, and more. In my home, we talk about public health ALL THE TIME. Dinner table discussions about the burden of disease, access to care, and brainstorming innovative public health solutions are common. In fact, just for fun, my oldest son and I would draw epi maps of disease distribution and calculate R0 as we learned more and more about COVID-19.
As the pandemic continued, I quickly realized that even though public health terminology was being thrown around, we were not speaking the same language as I heard so many calculations and analyses misinterpreted. Mortality rate was the calculation I heard misrepresented most often. Did you ever hear someone say that COVID has a 0.1041% death rate? Or did you ever hear the opposite of that, which was presented as COVID has a 99.8959% survival rate? I heard those so often! I remember the first time I heard a news channel interview physicians who were stating that COVID has a 99.89% survival rate, and I was in utter shock! As news with incorrect biostatistical calculations began to spread, the questions started rolling in from family, friends, students, and colleagues…
A new year, a new you? Throw away your diets and follow these 7 steps for lasting change
The new year is around the corner and for many of us, it’s a time to reflect on the previous year. We often think about our successes, losses, and what we still want to change. It could be discouraging for some to see another year come and have the same health goal as the previous year. Or maybe what you set a goal around actually got worse. Whether you’re in a place celebrating your successes or brainstorming new (or continuing) resolutions, New Year’s has a way of naturally giving us a reset. It’s a formalized new start that can come with new hope for healthy change.
A Tribute to Maine: What I Know to Be True
The past few days have been difficult to process as I watched my childhood home suffer. Even after processing a mass shooting in my husband’s hometown four years ago, I never imagined this would happen in mine. I felt the need to pause on my public health questions to address the grief and hope within this tragedy. I don’t want to address questions on public health policy for gun safety or anything that has a political lens right now. In fact, no matter which side of the gun laws you are on, this is not the time for a debate or education. I wish people on all sides would pause on their political lectures and allow a community to grieve for a moment.
On October 25, a man opened fire in a bowling alley and then a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, my birth city. Not only was it where I was born, but one of my children was born two miles away from the bowling alley.
Vaccines & Abortion
Are there fetal cells in the mRNA COVID vaccines? How can I get vaccinated if I don’t believe in abortion?
Many Christians have come to me with ethical tensions around vaccines. Some have asked me how they could get vaccinated if they don’t believe in abortion because they’ve heard the term HEK293 cells or that fetal cells are in vaccines. I love the heart of conviction that is behind those questions. If people feel strongly about an issue they perceive as a moral issue then it is understandable that they want to be consistent with their actions and their beliefs. I very much respect that and always think it is wise to ask questions and get facts before making any decision. And to be honest, I would be concerned if there were fetal cells in vaccines too. So let’s dive into what HEK293 cells are and what their role is with vaccine and medical development.
What Is the Field of Public Health? My Journey to Find It
As I was filtering through and categorizing questions and topics, I realized that not everyone is in this field of public health or in a position learning about it. I could simply define the field as the science of protecting and promoting the health of a population, but there are some complexities and misconceptions to unpack. What better way to explain what public health really is than to share about how I learned and knew that this was my forever path.
From a very young age, I knew I had a heart for helping others and serving the nations, but I also loved science, math, and health. I had vivid dreams as a kid of going to help in different countries and would wake my parents up with a globe to show them where I went. As a teenager, I used my significant teen birthdays as fundraisers to help others. I’d tell my friends to bring cash instead of gifts, and then I used the money to purchase supplies for people experiencing homelessness in cities around me.
I knew there had to be some path that combined my heart to serve the nations, health, science, math, and helping others…
Motives and Metrics: Steps to Clarify Public Health Information
Is this real? Can I believe this? How do I know if this public health information is true? I honestly can’t even count how many times I have been asked those questions about public health news articles, preliminary research studies, memes, videos, and social media posts. The pandemic ignited a desire in most people to learn about what was going on, but theories, ideas, and crazy information started to flood the internet faster than public health education.
Welcome to My Public Health World: Navigating the Nuances Together
Life has a funny way of making us all multitaskers. Maybe you’re a mom, wife, student, full-time employee, part-time employee, have several jobs, or are a homemaker, caregiver, and more. Chances are, you have multiple hats to wear as you balance your day between your many spheres of influence. I was processing my invisible hat collection, which can feel more like a Twister color wheel some days, as I looked at the different roles I have to navigate. I’m a wife and mom of three boys, which also makes me feel like a cleaner, taxi service, referee, and chef. I’m also an associate professor of public health, researcher, author, nonprofit CEO, and public speaker. Then there are the hats we all have in our social circles such as being a sister, daughter, friend, neighbor, church member, life group leader, mentor, and more. I truly love each hat I get to wear, the intertwined spheres of my life; I’m so grateful for the people around me.