Logan McFall
HLTH 4200 and Cooperative Experience
Every Health Sciences student at Clemson University is required to complete a 180 hour internship. Following Dr. Dye's HLTH 4980 Improving Population Health class, I was also offered an oppurtunity to work in a cooperative between Greenville Health System's Accountable Communities program and Clemson University's Extension Services and use part of my time from this experience as my course required internship. My time as an Accountable Communities Cooperative will continue over the next year following the completion of my internship. Please explore the links below to view work completed for my internship, and continue down the page to see some of the additional activities I will be participating in as one of the first Health Science Cooperatives at Clemson.
During the internship portion of my experience with GHS and Clemson Extension, I was primarily working on certifications and trainings which I would use over the next year as a CO-OP. Over the next year, I will be planning and creating programs to encourage community health, as well as managing a small caseload of patients as a community health worker. I plan to update this site as the Co-op experience continues following the completion of HLTH 4200.
HLTH 4200
CO-OP
As part of my Community Health Worker training, I was required to teach one chapter out of the textbook to the class. The chapter I presented was on conflict resolution and management in the workplace and with clients. I found this chapter to be a very useful skill and gained some experience in a new environment giving my first presentation as a professional rather than a student. The Community Health Worker training helped to achieve goals 1 and 3.
As one of Clemson's Extension services, and the first program under Extensions new Health branch, my supervisior, the other interns, and I did a lesson for children at Mauldin Montessori School on healthy and nutritious snacks. Children helped with making the snacks and then were able to try them, both of which are helpful in involving clients in their own health and encouraging healthy behaviors from a young age. All of these snacks included fruits or vegetables and the goal was to introduce the children to new healthy foods that they may not have tried before. A recipe sheet was put together so families can replicate the items made during this program, and supplemental nutrition material was sent home with the children to help educate the parents. This program was a landmark event as it was the first community program executed by the new health extension department, which is where my internship fell under. This project helped to achieve goals 1 and 2.
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Be able to identify critical stakeholders for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs, policies, and interventions.
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Be able to create a nutrition fact sheet for a program working with children and parents in the community.
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Be able to identify health related needs within the community.
Internship Goals
As the final project for my Community Health Worker training, I was required to create an intervention for Greenville County that could improve health outcomes and subsequently lower health care costs. This project is presented to management of the Accountable Communities department on the last day of CHW trianing. My project revolves around nutrition and exercise. My strategy is to organize walks sponsored by Greenville Health System on the Swamp Rabbit Trail and invite the entire community. HOP patients will be highly encouraged and incentivized to attend. The walks will be lead by nutritionists and dieticians from GHS, who will conduct brief and general nutrition talks. These talks can range on anything from general nutrition to specific healthy recipes, and can become club depending on interest. Following the pilot "walk and talk" participants will have the oppurtunity to schedule follow up individualized meetings with nutrtionists for one on one counseling and plans. These paid follow ups or clubs also have the oppurtunity to generate revenue for GHS. This concept will deal with all 3 goals.
The Butterfly Festival was one of the first activities I did as an intern. It was not directly health related as it dealt with the more traditional roles of Clemson Extension such as agriculture and nature. However, this was still a good learning oppurtunity as it gave me a chance to see the extension services in action as well as interact with the community and practice people skills. Because it helped familiarize me with the community, this project helps achieve goal 3.
The cooking class was a special three day event put on by Clemson Extension and Dr. Margret Condrasky, a Food Sciences professor at Clemson University. The camp was open to all and had participants from Greenville 4H and the New Impact program. New Impact deals especially with public health as it targets children who are at risk for dietary related chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease and refers them to programs such as the cooking camp in order to reduce risk. Dr. Condrasky's camp is unique in that many of her recipes involve low fat options and little to no salt. Not only did her cooking class teach children cooking methods, but it also showed them things to cook that are both healthy and taste good. My primary role in assisting with this camp was to present on some health benefits from eating a balanced diet and assisting the children in their cooking. This cooking camp helped to achieve all 3 goals.
