MHA@GW Module 4 - Community & Public Health
Key Competencies:
- Business Skills and Knowledge: solving problems and making decisions
- Business Skills and Knowledge: planning and managing projects
- Business Skills and Knowledge: strategic planning
- Business Skills and Knowledge: quantitative analysis
- Professionalism: professional and community contribution
- Health Care Knowledge: health care issues and trends
- Health Care Knowledge: population health and status assessment
- Health Care Knowledge: health policy formulation, implementation and evaluation
My Development:
This module really drove home the values of population and community health. Working in a clinical setting seeing the same patients come in over and over again, this class made me really consider the impact of the community on health, as well as our impact the health of the community.
Through our research for class, I learned about the many community outreach activities of my own organization, and just how much effort they put in to it. Overall, this is truely humbling. Currently, I work in a geriatric department. While we do have some resources available for our patients, I think there is much we can do to improve the health of our patients beyond what we are doing. This class helped me understand the value of what it really means to be advocates for our patients, which is why I have started to do research on services available. Among other things, this led me to discover that we were providing a treatment for our patients at a much higher cost than they could get elsewhere. After discussing with leadership in my department, we are making sure patients are aware of the options available, and the cost difference, hopefully helping the patients save some money. While it is not an astronomical savings, every little bit counts for many patients on Medicaid and Medicare.
The most valuable pieces of this course, for me, were the Community Helath Needs Assessment, the Community Health Improvement Plan, and the Advocacy Campaign we designed. The CHNA paints a picture of what needs to be addressed, and the CHIP addresses those needs. The Advocacy Campaign we designed addressed a specific need, in hopes to see improvements in health related to that need. These availability of these resources is important to improving the health of the community, because we can not just fix the people that come in to the office. We must educate the patients, and in doing so empower them to make meaningful changes on their own for the best possible health outcomes. It all starts with information, providing it to the community we are serving, and being agents for change in the community we serve.