Kristen Jozkowski, from left, Jean Henry, Bart Hammig and Ches Jones teach in the community health promotion program. Photo by Beth Hal
October 2, 2011
Students could pick a new major from the academic degree listings for the University of Arkansas this fall – but it isn’t new.
The College of Education and Health Professions changed the name of the health science program to community health promotion, but the program mission remains the same: to prepare professionals who will educate people about preventing diseases and injuries and promote the health of community populations.
While professionals in the medical field treat sick and injured people on an individual basis, professionals working in community health promotion educate groups and individuals through programs designed to help prevent chronic and infectious diseases, explained Bart Hammig, an associate professor of community health promotion.
“We train students to work on a community level,” Hammig said. “We’re not an allied-health degree. Our graduates plan community-based health programs, implement them and evaluate them. They conduct needs assessments in communities to determine the health needs of the population and work with people to address their needs as they relate to the public’s health. If you don’t involve the people, it’s very hard to get the community’s attention.”
Professor Ches Jones has been on the program’s current faculty the longest with 17 years under his belt.
“Community health promotion has been the focus of our program for a long time,” Jones said. “We thought about changing the name several years ago. It better reflects what we are preparing our students to do after they graduate.”
Treatment of any disease is significantly more expensive than preventing it, Hammig said.
“For example, obesity and all the accompanying health effects stemming from it cost this nation $148 billion a year,” he said. “Obesity affects quality of life and life expectancy because it is often a precursor to hypertension, heart disease, stroke, some cancers and diabetes. If we can prevent these diseases from occurring, we lower the costs incurred and improve the quality and quantity of life of individuals.”
BIG UMBRELLA
Jean Henry, also an associate professor of community health promotion, said students who choose this major often are what she terms nurturers – “people who are interested in health care and medicine but don’t necessarily want to do blood and guts.”
The faculty members described community health promotion as a broad-based umbrella type of discipline.
“Students can select where they want to get involved,” Hammig said. “Whether it involves governmental health agencies, nonprofit organizations, international health organizations or within the health-care system, there is a lot of flexibility.”
Henry said many students in the program have had a family member experience a serious health issue.
“That experience makes them believe something could have been done to make the situation better,” she said. “That experience often leads them to think of this profession.”
CONTRIBUTING RESEARCH
The varied research agendas of faculty and students bear out the variety of career paths afforded by the community health promotion field. Among them, the three faculty members, plus new assistant professor Kristen Jozkowski from Indiana University, study such topics as injury prevention, health risk behavior, sexual health issues, firefighter wellness and workplace violence.
“It’s easy to work with our students on research,” Hammig said. “They come to us with all types of projects.”
One student’s topic was how body image impacts sexual behavior, he said, and another student looked at drinking behavior among college students, the risks to them from drinking and ways to prevent alcohol abuse.
“Kindi Stone’s dissertation examined communication about sexuality between fathers and daughters and how it impacts the sexual health of daughters,” Hammig said.
Stone graduated in May with a doctorate in health science, before the program name change went into effect. In July, she became executive director of Northwest Arkansas Rape Crisis Inc. The Springdale-based nonprofit organization serves as an advocate for survivors of rape and sexual assault and abuse.
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
Students in both the undergraduate and master’s programs are required to complete internships. The program faculty and students are also building partnerships with local groups in other ways, Hammig said. He and four interns performed a needs assessment for the local Susan G. Komen for the Cure chapter to determine how the poverty levels of women affect their breast cancer screening rates.
“It’s important to get our students out and involved in community,” he said. “We do that through partnerships and internship. Hands-on experience is the cornerstone of our program.”
Students have to understand the concept of getting buy-in from the community, Jones said, and an internship can help with that.
“There are individuals who will get involved in a community-based health organization such as Susan G. Komen or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation because they have a family member affected by a disease,” he explained. “That’s the individual focus, but students also need to learn how to reach out to a community in order to promote awareness and change to an entire population. They need to learn communication skills, too.”
Apple Seeds Inc. welcomed its first intern from the program this semester. The Fayetteville-based organization provides education and tools to enhance local food systems and support better nutrition for people in Northwest Arkansas.
“I think this is a really great fit between our programs,” said Lucy Kagan, Apples in the Classroom coordinator. “Community health promotion is what Apple Seeds is all about. We have received a very positive response from the community, and we think our intern will be able to help with planning, organizing programs and raising funds. She will get a broad spectrum of experience with us.”
Stone also welcomed an intern at Northwest Arkansas Rape Crisis Inc. this fall.
“They can be engaged in service-learning in the trenches here,” she said. “They can decide if they love it or if they don’t. In the helping professions, you do it because you want to give back, you want to make a difference.”
