I started
working with my advisor this past spring semester while taking the HHS 492:
Clinical Research Internship class. During the semester I worked on analyzing
survey data from a survey that was sent out to primary care providers in Loudoun
County, VA regarding infant feeding and supplementation practices. While
working on this, I was exposed to other survey projects in the Loudoun
community and I decided I wanted to continue working on these projects over the
summer with a URSP grant. By working on a few different projects, I have the
opportunity to work on and learn about several steps of the research/survey
process because each project is in different stages. My main project this
summer has been working on collecting and analyzing data for a community health
survey that is assessing nutrition, exercise, general health, and resources
provided to the community. We are targeting the low-income population because
they are at higher risk of obesity. As a nursing major, I hope to work as a
nurse in low-income areas, so this project has given me good experience in that
sense. I think it can be easy to look at an excel spreadsheet of data and not
feel connected to the people behind those numbers. However, being able to meet
the people who are providing the responses and entering the data myself, they
mean more. For example, one respondent reported a household of 11 people with a
household income of less than $20K. This seemed really sad to think about how
if they just used this money for food, each person would have less than $5 per
day. However, with the other questions they answered they seemed optimistic,
which was inspiring to see that they could continue to be optimistic.
From week to
week my work changes. I generally work on data analysis and data entry, but I
also go to clinics and collect survey information from patients. In addition, I
have gone to the Loudoun Pediatric Obesity Coalition (LPOC) to present results of
the survey to help guide the LPOC members in carrying out there mission. I
enjoy meeting with health professionals and LPOC members who are going to take
the information that I am analyzing and use it to improve how they address
certain health issues.
