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Covid 19 Experience Shows Possibilities of Remote Internships

The necessity of Covid 19 restrictions requiring students in the Title V MCH Internship Program to work remotely created challenges but also showed the possibility of remote work to reduce housing and travel burdens to students and funders in Title V work. In a paper published by The Maternal and Child Health Journal, the authors outline how students and state Title V agencies tackled the challenges of pivoting to remote work and created mutually valuable internship experiences.

Since Summer 2014, the Title V MCH Internship Program has paired internship teams of graduate and undergraduate students with state and jurisdictional Title V agencies. Teams traveled to the site of the internships, with the program providing funds for travel and housing. The restrictions on travel and in-person work created by the pandemic forced the internship program to quickly pivot its student internship teams to working remotely during the summer of 2020.

The success of the 2020 internships, according to the paper, shows that remote work remain an option for interns, especially when travel distances and housing costs can create burdens on the students or preceptors. The decision should be made in consideration of the the missed opportunities and limitations caused by not being in person, as well as the needs of the internship project and host agencies.

The article is part of a special supplement to the Maternal and Child Health Journal on Developing the Current and Future MCH Public Health Workforce guest edited by the National MCH Workforce Center and the Division of MCH Workforce Development at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau in the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The paper was authored by Arden Handler, Director of Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago; Rebecca Greenleaf, Training Coordinator at the National MCH Workforce Development Center; Christine Bozlak, Associate Professor, University at Albany School of Public Health; Victoria Moerchen, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee; Kris Pizur-Barnekow, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee; Cindy San Miguel, Associate Director of Evaluation and Technical Assistance at Sinai Urban Health Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago; Olivia Sappenfield, ORISE Fellow in Epidemiology at Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau; and Gabriella Masina, Assistant Director, Center for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health at University of Illinois Chicago.

This is the second article of the workforce supplement, which will release articles periodically between now and the spring of 2022. The full thematic issue will be available in spring of 2022, with a focus on new findings, innovations, and policy and program evaluations that can advance system change in the MCH workforce that impacts the health of MCH populations. Articles will be posted on the WDC website when they are published by the Maternal and Child Health Review Journal.

Mentorship in the Public Health Workforce Can Help Address Workforce Retention, Turnover, and Equity

Mentorship is a crucial component in the nurturing of young professionals into MCH leaders, but the field has yet to embrace it as a means to develop the workforce and address the field’s crisis in workforce retention and turnover, according to an article in The Maternal and Child Health Journal published as part of a special issue developed in partnership with the National MCH Workforce Development Center.

Authored by Kathryn Mishkin, Senior Director of Science, Data, Evaluation, and Innovation at the March of Dimes; Grace Guerrero Ramirez, Analyst at the Children, Youth and Families Division of Mathematica; Anne Odusanya, Director/Unit Supervisor at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services; and Benjamin Kaufman, Associate Director of Workforce Development and Capacity Building at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), the paper urges a change in individual and organizational practices to include mentorship as a part of all levels of practice as part of creating a culture of belonging.

Mentorship programs also represent an opportunity to expand the diversity of the MCH leadership when the programs are designed around the importance of health equity and social justice in developing the workforce.

The article is part of a special supplement to the Maternal and Child Health Journal on Developing the Current and Future MCH Public Health Workforce guest edited by the National MCH Workforce Center and the Division of MCH Workforce Development at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau in the Health Resources and Services Administration.

This is the first article of the workforce supplement, which will release articles periodically between now and the spring of 2022. The full thematic issue will be available in spring of 2022, with a focus on new findings, innovations, and policy and program evaluations that can advance system change in the MCH workforce that impacts the health of MCH populations. Articles will be posted on the WDC website when they are published by the Maternal and Child Health Review Journal.