Division of Community Women's Health

Jennifer Treasure, Summer 2011

My summer internship with the Urban Health Project has been more rewarding and eye opening than I could have expected. I had the opportunity to work at five different UC Ob-Gyn clinics, and each of them offered the chance to learn about the unique patient population, as well as how different Ob-Gyn clinics are run. My summer began by shadowing Dr. Pakrashi, which allowed me to learn about the patients and their specific medical needs. I used this information to choose a set of topics to educate patients about, taking their age and individual needs into consideration. Topics that I chose included the Gardasil vaccine, the Tdap vaccine, folic acid intake, birth control methods, calcium and vitamin D intake, and mammograms. After researching and finding a handout about each of the above topics, I was able to sit down and educate the patients about the applicable topics. In addition, a large part of my project was creating a poster for each of the clinics, detailing the topics that women of specific age categories should be discussing with their physicians. On top of promoting preventative healthcare to the patients, the posters provide a way to keep the clinic staff, including nurses, medical assistants, and physicians, on the same page as to the care needed by the patients seen. The poster I created, with the help of Dr. Pakrashi, is divided into six different age categories of women. The topics listed in each category are health recommendations given by the United States Preventative Services Task Force and the Center for Disease Control. Finally, infant mortality is another topic of education desperately needed by the patients. The infant mortality rate (IMR) in Hamilton county is almost double that of the nation, and by raising awareness about IMR and the ways we can prevent it, our community can hopefully make a substantial difference. In order to do this, I educated patients with the IMR pamphlet that last year's UHP intern, Meghan Brown, and Dr. Kelly created. With the help of this literature, we hope to improve the community's knowledge about this devastating problem.

For me, the most rewarding part of the summer was talking to and educating the patients. The majority of them were unaware of the preventative healthcare measures they should be taking, and nearly all of them were interested in learning about ways to improve their health. Additionally, I found the patients to be extremely grateful for their care, making it an absolute pleasure to get to know them, both on a medical and on a personal level.