Public & Community Health Research
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Prepare for Your Career in Public Health Through Research
Dr. Linnaya Graf
The prevalence of health professionals and social service workers who experience stress and burnout resulting from their professions has been well documented in select health professions as contributing to work-related mental health impairment, and challenges with retention in the field. Recent literature has established this phenomenon as posing a significant challenge to the field; however, appropriate core interventions and tools remain unavailable or untested. Further, little is understood about the patterns and trends across healthcare professionals related to stress and burnout as a field. The proposed Participatory Action Project includes a multiple phased, multi-year approach designed to improve understanding of the phenomena of stress and burnout among the health care professions, as well as develop pathways for addressing this significant public health problem through the following stages:
(a) Synthesis of the current evidence on stress and burnout for health professionals, synthesis of the literature for acute versus chronic stress for health professionals, and identification of current best practices for tools and resources which have been identified as evidenced-based for addressing areas of stress and burnout.
(b) Mixed method data collection of an expansive sample of health care professionals representing a multitude of various fields across professions of healthcare and social service to explore perceptions and experiences of the frontline.
(c) Force Field Analysis of the ranked factors and development of an action plan for change of those factors identified as both most important, and most amenable.
(d) Suggestions for and creation of strategies, services, and approaches into a tool kit for academic and workplace curriculum for individuals and agencies serving health care professionals to improve resilience, decrease stress, and reduce burnout.
(d) Evaluation of tools to determine impact after implementation.
Dr. Oswald Attin
View Dr. Oswald Attin’s Biography
Dr. Gineska Castillo
View Dr. Gineska Castillo’s Biography
Guatemala has the highest rate of chronic malnutrition in all Latin America, but very little is understood about the health outcomes related to the nutritional practices of people in isolated communities within Guatemala. For the first phase of this research, two faculty members and two students from the Department of Public and Community Health conducted a health needs assessment focusing on the nutrition patterns, level of food insecurity, extreme blood glucose levels, and hemoglobin levels of adults within the communities of Zacapa, Guatemala. Rates of malnutrition and stunted growth of children within the same communities were also assessed through a second component of this research.
Liberty University’s mission of, “Developing Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills essential to impact the world,”2 and the mission of the Department of Public and Community Health, “Embracing the Christian worldview with a commitment to serve the underserved, the Liberty University Public and Community Health Program provides diverse educational, research, and practice opportunities to enable others to experience the embrace of God—‘A faithful envoy brings healing’ (Proverbs 13:17),”3 will be clearly executed throughout this research opportunity in Zacapa. As students and faculty collaborate on the development, implementation, and analysis of the research of both the nutritional habits and outcomes among the people in Zacapa and the additional informed interventions, they will apply knowledge gained from Liberty University to serve the underserved populations in Guatemala.
Previous research has not been conducted about nutrition habits specifically related to health outcomes in Zacapa, Morales and other parts of Guatemala; however, enough research has been conducted to provide this study with evidence-based scales that can be altered in questionnaires to study nutrition habits and food insecurity in Central American, underdeveloped nations.
Dr. Robyn Anderson
Dr. Robyn Anderson is currently studying the effects of BMI on heart rate in children ages 11 to 12 through a six-minute step test.
Dr. Thomas Shahady
Dr. Thomas Shahady (PI) of The University of Lynchburg (UL) proposes to educate and train three student cohorts totaling 12 undergraduate and 6 graduate students through a three-year project involving research experiences on water quality in rural Costa Rica. The PI will prepare four undergraduate students and two graduate students, for each of the project’s three summer terms, to conduct ecological research under the mentorship of scientists at the Monteverde Institute (MVI) in Monteverde and Sustainability Demonstration Center (SDC), Costa Rica. Both entities are established, not-for-profit organizations dedicated to education, applied research, and engagement with Costa Rican communities. Students will reside and complete laboratory analyses at the SDC. The PI serves as the manager for the water quality laboratory and facilities at this well-equipped campus. The PI of this proposal will be present as the students transition into their international experience and will remain in Costa Rica for the summer to conduct his own independent work. This collaboration among MVI, UL, and SDC will result in mentorship for every aspect of the students’ work and will ensure continuous professional development during their time abroad. Each student will spend 10 weeks at the IRES site during their summer abroad and will complete their own investigation in support of the project’s overarching theme—”investigating interactions between surface waters and groundwaters to improve the safety of drinking water supplies.”