Spring 2020 Internship project

Spring 2020 Final Portfolio By Meron Shawul We all know that practical experience is the best, and internships give students that hands-on experience they need. I feel that quality internships are essential to develop key skills that you can't get in a classroom from discussions or lectures. Skills such as multitasking, communicating, leadership, teamwork. work ethic, learning to deal with diversity, and dealing with deadlines are different when you are working for someone else, not yourself like you do in college. Internships are also a great way to network with people in the industry. In the last year of my undergraduate study I was lucky enough and got the chance to do an internship with Immunize Nevada.

Internship project Hepatitis A Outbreak Among the Community Research Hepatitis A viruses (HAV) is a Public Health concern if communities and individuals are not aware of what causes Hepatitis A or ways to prevent it. At the bagging of my internship I was given a task to start with more incept research about Hepatitis A here in Clark County as well as what the Health Districts are doing to prevent HAV Statewide. My top focuses were Las Vegas, Nevada near the Clack County area. With the help of my Supervisor Tara Nerida I was able to navigate the city of Las Vegas the number of Hepatitis A outbreak associated cases by ZIP Code.

Reaching out to organization’s was one part of the project, this has helped me to improve myself confident and public speaking. After collecting about 25 organization contact information, I made a call and followed up with email asking if they can partner up with immunize Nevada and discus about the resent Hepatitis A outbreak, we had here in Clark County. To give a possible educational presentation or do a discussion to their clients or staff members. We were also willing to attend their outreach events. I was able to schedule an in-person meeting with those you were interested in partnering up and discussed how we can reduce the risk factors as well as provide vaccination by partnering up with Southern Nevada Health Districts (SNHD). When meeting those organizations, we hand them a sample flyer in both Spanish and English that follows the CDC guidelines. The flyer includes and list out who are at risk, how the virus spread, symptoms of Hepatitis A, as well as a link if interested in to learn more about Hepatitis A.

During my internship period, while partnering up and doing presentations/discussion, it amazes me by how many people are getting the vaccinated. One example is the U.S. Veterans center, immunize Nevada partnered up with SNHD and we when to the U.S. Vets center and most of them concerned due to not having the right resource to answer their questions. During the

discussion about twenty people were interested in getting the vaccine and thanks to SNHD nurses they were about to look up the vets immunize records as well as give them the shot. Unfortunately, I was not about to take a picture, but it was definitely where I felt like we accomplished something and made a difference. Along the Hepatitis A project, I was also given the task to help with Healthy Young NV Such as going through the website and give some feet up. My supervisor Tara Nerida and I did advocacy presentation at Foot Hill High School about the benefits of Immunization, Healthy Young NV how the website is created for those between 10- 26 years of age. The program is an age specific resource providing education the can be applied to everyday life. I attended two of Immunize Nevada’s Community Meeting, for the month of January and February located at the Comagine Health.

I was trained to use WebiZ and look up immunization information and dosage reports. Created SNHD’s mobile clinic schedule hours for both Las Vegas and Henderson location flyer. This will be passed out during an outreach event.

We also created Hepatitis A wall stickers to encourage people to get the hepatitis A vaccine and I am happy to say the stickers are currently being published by Immunize Nevada.

Due to concerns regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Community Meetings, outreach events, or any public gathering are canceled until farther notes. This was the most challenging part for my project because it includes doing lots of outreach events and meeting. Although everything is on hold, I have managed to do a couple of virtual meeting. Our state had demanded a lack down to stay at home and follow the CDC and WHO guidelines. The Immunize Nevada is following those guild lines and is working from home, currently all interns are continuing to work virtually and report the works and progress we are making to our supervisors. As I wrap up my spring internship, I would like to thank Immunize Nevada and my supervisor Tara Nerida for giving me the opportunity to be your Public Health intern. I was happy to attend community meetings, board meetings, collaborate with the AmeriCorp team, plan outreach activities, and more. I have accumulated experience in research, critical thinking, event planning, teamwork, and data management. I can now say with confidence I have grown and learned so much these past few months. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've been given, and I've been able to see how public health work is like. Thank You, Meron Shawul