My Experience at Carlton County Public Health and Human Services

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Carlton County Public Health and Human Services is to promote the health, safety, dignity, and self-sufficiency of individuals, families, and communities.

In fulfilling this Mission, the agency and staff hold the following belief:

The health and the safety of our communities are vital to the entire population of Carlton County.

The individual and the family represent the foundation of the community.

Preserving families and the rights to self-determination are primary values.

Carlton County is located in Northeastern Minnesota and our Public Health and Human Services programs serve a rural county of nearly 34,000 residents. Carlton County Public Health and Human Services operates offices in Cloquet, Carlton, and Moose Lake.

(Mission taken from http://www.co.carlton.mn.us/departments/public_health_human_services/public_home.htm)



Internship Objectives:

• Schedule at least six visits with various nurses to experience other services provided by Carlton County Public Health and Human Services. (Objective not met: Attended three prenatal visits, one postpartum visit, and spend a morning with a nurse at the jail for a total of five visits. I did, however, attend a variety of health fairs, conferences, meetings, and inspections, which also provided a good view of the many services offered by the department.)

• Compile all the results from the evaluation surveys regarding the snack cart at Moose Lake school. (Objective met: Reviewed completed surveys from students in grades K-6, parents, and teachers and compiled the reponses in a Word document.)

• Create lesson plans for the three days of M.O.V.E. Camp activities. (Objective met: Created lesson plans for our 45 minute sessions. Activities included jacks, marbles, hopscotch, various races, frisbee, hula hoops, and soccer to correspond with the decade-themed days of camp.)

• Prepare and give at least two women's health presentations at the jail. (Objective met: Created and gave three presentations, covering the following topics 1) alcohol and tobacco use, 2) diabetes, and 3) heart disease and stroke.)

• Assemble information regarding Emergency Preparedness: Special Populations. (Objective not met: The implementation of the Esko school garden turned into a bigger project than originally anticipated. It took priority over the E.P. project and so I spent time helping with the gardens in lieu of creating this report.)
  

My Biggest Challenge:

I believe my biggest challenge was creating various presentations and then giving them at the jail. Originally, I was just going to coordinate various speakers from the community to give presentations. The program coordinator and I began running out of time to set that all up, and then it was suggested that I just give a few presentations myself. At first I was terrified by the thought, but it turned out to be a very rewarding experience for me. Quite a bit of time was spent researching my topics, creating print resources, and calming my own nerves. Developing presentations without the common visual aids of PowerPoints or videos was rather daunting, but it forced me to really get into the topics so that I could be knowledgeable enough to talk about them for the whole time period without relying on anything else. For the heart disease presentation, I had spent time finding a few informative videos to enhance the presentation, only to find out the next day that I couldn't use them at all. This was challenging, but I was able to use it as an opportunity to be a bit more creative with my presentations. Each time I went, I was very nervous because I didn't know how receptive or engaged my audience would be, but each time the women who came to listen were great and we had very in-depth conversations about personal experiences with the topics. Overall, I am glad I did these presentations because they pushed me out of my comfort zone, which is usually a positive thing for me.



If I Could Have Changed One Thing:

The one aspect of my internship that I wish I could change is that I would like to help with the construction of the Esko school garden and see it to completion. I have seen the patio get put in place and the beginning construction of the beds thus far, but I would love to see the planters with vegetables in them, and apple trees and blueberries surrounding it all. Also, I know that this project has many stages, and it may not be fully completed for quite some time. I ended up spending a considerable amount of time with this project, and although it was frustrating at times (mainly due to my lack of landscaping skills), I really enjoyed the physical work that went along with preparing the foundations for the patio and beds, and creating the planters.



How This Experience Has Impacted My Career:

Although I still do not know what type of career I would like to end up in, I know that this internship experience has greatly increased my skill set by providing a great variety of opportunities for me to be a part of. I also learned more about the type of environment that I prefer to work in. I absolutely loved the other women in the office that I was working with, and I hope that I can have such excellent co-workers some day. My supervisors were always very encouraging and made me feel right at home in the office. I learned that I enjoy having a variety of duties, as opposed to sitting in an office all day. Some of the most important skills I gained have been improved communication skills, ability to be flexible, and increased confidence. I had the opportunity to talk to and work with many people throughout the last ten weeks, whether it was via email, phone, or face-to-face. As far as flexibility goes, I had never imagined I would be doing landscaping work! :) As I mentioned earlier, however, I did enjoy this a lot, and it was also a good reminder that a health educator is often required to be a "jack-of-all-trades", especially when working under a grant. One of the greatest confidence boosts I had was after my final jail presentation when all the women thanked me and one of them even told me she thought I was very good at my job. That was such a wonderful comment to hear, especially considering how nervous I had originally been about being there!