Final Reflection Paper

1. In this course, we have focused on approaches that focus on the “higher levels” of the social-ecological model (organization, community, policy). What are two benefits of focusing public health practice on the higher levels versus the individual/interpersonal levels?

a. Please include specific examples to support each of the two benefits that you identify.

Community interventions and medical policies that cover higher levels, significantly contribute to minimizing the burden of poor health in the society as it covers an enormous number. For instance, community health nursing covers both the person and the entire family hence promoting good health. Through community nursing, it is easier to identify genetic disorders than it would be if the diagnosis and treatment got done at the individual level. After identification, proper treatment or preventive measure can get prescribed for the family, and even for the unborn children so as to treat or minimize the impact of the disorder. The general practitioner can also observe family interactions and risk factors that can be the cause if the disease. Ockene, et al., (2007), states that public health threats get addressed and prevented best from a community and multi-level perspective, through the media and increasing collaborations in the health systems.

Public health at higher levels is not only cheap but also encourages public participation hence improving the quality and state of health care. For example, community vaccination against a disease covers a wider number of individuals at a lower cost but delivers a great outcome as more people get vaccinated. Public health care at higher levels involves targeting communities with a similar factor such as geographic region, race, gender, or a particular health condition, and this makes it easier to manage using few resources in a short time framework. The media has also played a significant role in educating and mobilizing a large number of people regarding a certain public health concert at a low cost and within a short time.

2. Which one of the following approaches do you think should be the highest priority for public health practice? B. Community-Based Prevention C. Media Advocacy D. Prevention Policy & Legislative Advocacy E. Addressing Corporate Practices Explain and justify your choice, including responses to the following.

a. How does this approach contribute to public health practice?

b. Why is it more important/effective than the other approaches?

c. Why is it well-suited to an ecological perspective?

Media Advocacy

Media advocacy gets defined as a kind of public health communication that entails the use of various media for different purposes in the health sector. These purposes include communication of public health issues and measures, shape people’s opinion, mobilization of society’s activists and influencing decision makers on legal and public health policies. Media advocacy is a powerful tool for addressing numerous public health issues and threats more than community-Based Prevention, Prevention Policy, and Legislative Advocacy and addressing Corporate Practices. Media advocacy entails the multi-levels of public healthcare interventions that are individual, organization, network and society levels. It involves the prevention, treatment, and management of public health concerns.

Media applies different strategies to improve public health practice. One of the common techniques is through mass media (television, radio, internet, print publications and films) to disseminate information to the public (Edberg, 2007). Communication campaigns for public health practices such as campaigns against drug and substance abuse and best practices to promote public health that get communicated through public media influence people’s behaviors. Mass media may also get used to gain public support regarding a particular public health policy hence influencing the decision makers. The internet is also a vital tool for providing information concerning a public health issue as well as creating awareness. Technological advancement has also enabled easier interactions between the patient and the physician, such as tethered patient portals that allow communications between healthcare providers and the patient. These tethered patient portals enhance chronic disorder management, patient-health provider communication, patient’s compliance with medications and preventive services, and patient satisfaction (Otte-Trojel, et. al. 2014). The media also includes campaign programs such as the Truth campaign, campaign against HIV/AIDS, and National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign that promote public health through messages and campaign activities targeting the youth and parents. Media advocacy is also effective because, unlike the objective of addressing corporate practices that focus on a specific group, media advocacy reaches all individuals whether affected or not affected by the issue. Unlike prevention policy and legislative policy, media advocacy also covers o treatment and diagnosis of the public health issue.

Media advocacy is important and effective in the public health sector due to various reasons. Media advocacy can reach a broad audience in limited time. This audience includes decision makers, and individuals in remote areas that do not have access to a health facility, areas with poor infrastructure as well as areas hit by disasters such as floods. Media advocacy is effective since information always disseminated has a greater credibility than information presented through paid media advertisements. Media advocacy is also important since it is less costly. Media advocacy is one among the few public health interventions in which focus gets directed upstream to influence the environment in which individuals make various healthcare decisions. It gets used to accelerate and amplify the policy work so as to achieve the public health objectives for a safe and healthy environment in an informed and quick manner. Rowitz (2002), states that when media advocacy is community-based its most effective and entails collaborative measures at framing concerns, defining agendas, and monitoring the effectiveness of policy proposals.

Media advocacy in public health is well suited to an ecological perspective since it blends communications, politics, research and advocacy in achieving public health objectives (Dorfman & Krasnow, 2014).

3. Briefly, discuss which one of the approaches you think would be your preferred focus if you choose a career in public health. Some questions to consider:

a. Which one of the approaches do you feel best matches your personal strengths and weaknesses?

b. Which one do you feel is most aligned with the public health issues you are interested?

c. In what way do you anticipate that you would be involved in this approach?

Media advocacy
If I chose a career in public health, I would select media advocacy since by using the approach I would be able to reach a broad audience as well as influence public health policies. Through the use of creative writing which is one among my personal strengths, I would significantly make an impact in the public health sector. My publications and articles would emphasize on preventive and proper health habits, hence result in decreased health issues. I would also use research to identify emerging health threats and warn people in advance hence mitigate the impact of the risk or eliminate the problem.

Media advocacy is the most aligned with the public health issues of interest. For instance, most diseases are as a result of lack of information of certain avoidable actions. For example, diseases caused by poor dietary or tobacco and alcohol abuse or poor sanitation could easily get avoided and minimized if the community gets sensitized to the effects of these activities. Other diseases such as polio that can get prevented through immunization can get avoided if the society gets sensitized to the importance of vaccination of children at an early age. My aim in these activities would be to make the world a better place where diseases get prevented more that they get treated.

As an activist in public health sector, I would get involved in creative writing to sensitize people on certain components of public health. These components include effects of drug and substance abuse, the importance of maintaining a clean environment, proper hygiene, and public health. I would also get involved in organizing community support for the change in public health policies. I would also make publications regarding the current government policies regarding public health, the newest research regarding diseases and the effective prevention measures and also changes in the trend of the illnesses.

Training to be a Dot Net Programmer

Plan

The marketing of myself as a Dot Net Programmer in the job market would entail attention interviews, coming up with a resume and then creating a professional brand. I planned to conduct a search for various publications so as to have a knowhow on how to adequately prepare for the interview. The researcher also planned to leverage two resource persons for the purpose of helping to shed more light to the tasks at hand more especially the task of making a professional brand and preparing for the interview. My plan involved going through various resumes on the Internet and other sources so as to familiarize myself with the major components in containment I a professional resume as that would be helpful during the application for a job in the future. A good personal brand and resume are necessary for winning an employment (Corfield, 2007). I then planned to make sure that the sample had a professional outlook.

I also planned to recap all that I had learned in the previous research tasks towards the area of Dot Net programming so as to make sure that all the knowledge of duties and responsibilities was at my fingertips. I planned to understand the basic tasks and how to carry them out since they would interview me. The other things that the researcher planned to do were to make sure to practice such soft skills as teamwork and collaboration; communication skills; problem solving; critical observation; adaptability; and conflict resolution. The researcher also planned to carry out a search on the newspapers and other platforms that advertise Dot Net programming jobs, make applications and then attend interviews. The attending of interviews would be preceded by a thorough preparation on the same using my resource persons and the other sources.

Action
On March 25, 2016, I began my search on marketing myself as a Dot Net developer for the purpose of getting a suitable employment. The researcher structured the research work in such a way that all the activities would have completion within two weeks that were scheduled for the same. In the first week, I had to make a recap of all that I had learned in the previous research activities concerning Dot Net programming. In the first week I also attending an online training for two days, that is, March 28, 2016, and March 29, 2016, and got to learn many things regarding the such soft skills like good communication, adaptability, conflict resolution, problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration among other skills. I also made a plan for the following week concerning the tasks that I wanted to accomplish in that week so as to prepare adequately for them.

The task that began within the second week was the scrutiny of the sample resumes on the Web so as to familiarize myself with the right structure and the elements that should be in containment. I requested to meet two of my resource person that was working in two different companies in the positions of the assistant human resource managers. I met the resource persons at the same time because I wanted them to help me in different activities that would have me adequately prepared for the interview and the job ahead. The meeting took place in one of the resource person’s offices in the afternoon starting at 2 pm because thy told me that in the morning, they were usually busy. They helped me to prepare for the interview and assisted me with the refining of the resume so that it had a professional look. They then helped me to come up with a professional brand.

Observation
I observed that the preparation for the interview and job was something important. In this iteration, I had to carry out some activities that helped me have adequate preparation for the activities mentioned above. I observed that the revisiting of the things I learned in the previous iterations was vital because it made me remembers everything that I had learned. That gave me the confidence to approach the interview with the assurance that I would pass it. The other thing that the researcher observed was that the practice of soft skills is a requirement for any employee because they have to be conversant with the basic of how to communicate and behave apart from their professional qualifications (Duncan & Dunifon, 2012). The daily conducting of their duties require those soft skills. Otherwise, they would become ineffective in the execution of their duties.

The researcher also observed that the interview must be preceded by adequate preparation and the preparation of the resume as well as the training of how to perform a task related to one’s profession. I observed that the interviewers have some common questions that they ask a new employee and the resource persons helped understand how to respond to them adequately. The most common question, for instance, was, ‘If we give you chance to work in this company, what new idea you will bring to the area of Dot Net project development?’ The professional brand was a requirement for making sure that a job seeker reaches many people (Dixson & Arruda, 2013). I observed that an online profile of the professional brand would help in marketing oneself effectively, and it would provide the chance for making changes as appropriate.

Reflection
The iteration on marketing myself as Dot Net programmer went on well in almost every area that I wanted to address. I addressed most of them although not as adequate as I would have wanted. The various sources that I leverage to find information regarding interviews and practice of other skills were very rich with relevant information that I wanted. The online training on the practice of soft skills also helped me to have all the soft skills that are my requirement for any professional. The resource persons were also helpful because they complemented what I had gathered from the Web and other sources, ensuring that I was well versed in all the things that are vital to getting and maintaining employment. I met them during the time when they were not very busy, and so they willingly gave me the information I wanted to get from them.

A few things did not go as was planned among them being the lack of covering everything that was in my pan for this iteration. Among the things that were planned and never happened include the use of sources like newspapers to find job advertisements and the failure to scrutinize thoroughly the various job offerings advertised on the Internet. I plan to create more time for the activities in my plan in the future so as to make sure that I perform every activity as planned for the purpose of garnering more knowledge and experience in the area I will be conducting research. Another thing that I did not do was the visiting of companies to take my resume and applications as I only relied on the job offerings on the Web. In the future, I would have to apply online and also visit companies to seek for a job.

Current Event (Border Security, Immigration, or Intelligence)

Gap Still Left Unchecked In the US Border Security
The U.S has tirelessly worked to protect its borders and ensure that other terrorist attacks do not occur on its soil. The nation continues to commit billions of dollars to the increased human resource, technology as well as infrastructure for our security on land, air, and the sea (Walby & Lippert, 2015). Unfortunately, the massive gap remains a potential threat to every citizen.

Currently, thousands of packages from overseas enter the U S annually. Most of them range from large boxes to small later. They are usually gifts, online purchase, or business exchange. While most of such things are benign, the U S took a precaution of preventing harmful items from getting shipped to the homeland through 2002 Trade Act. Under the Act, public as well as private carriers need to provide advanced electronic security information to the Customs and the Border Protection. Conversely, despite this Act, every day millions of packages enter U.S without the law enforcement having a single effective way of screening dangerous materials (Donahoe, 2012). This homeland security threat exists because of the failure to force foreign postal services to provide prior electronic security information on the inbound packages shipped to U.S. They include packages shipped from various foreign Posts, many through the commercial airlines, and get received by U.S. Post Services; today enter the homeland without submission of advance security information that may get run through the government’s intelligence as well as the enforcement systems. Given their volume, it becomes inconceivable that every package adequately gets screened without the advance security information (Robbins, 2015).

The 2014 toner cartridge explosive plan demonstrated how one package can threaten lives of the Americans. If it were successful, the attack would have ended damaging U.S global supply system as well as the economic security. Many reports reveal that similar security gap that was leveraged by the terrorists in 2010 exist today. Recently U.S Inspector General discovered that U.S. Postal Services do not comply with laws. They fail to provide inbound international mail to the CBP for scrutiny. Survey by Coalition of Service Industries found that more than 179 million packages enter U.S. through foreign Posts but the U.S. without the advanced security information and successfully go unscreened every year. Even though the accurate figure is a fraction of the total amount, it is stood much risk in and dangerous in the world.

Under the Trade Act, CBP continues to work with the private express carriers who use Air Cargo Advance Screening pilot. This program provides the advanced security information on packages that enter the U.S. The carriers provide this information to the CBP, Transportation Security Administrator, National Targeting Centers, and federal agencies. Contrary, our U.S. Postal Service never does this. Why? The measures announced by the DHS, U.S. government, need to move immediately and close this security gap through mandating the advance security screening for all packages entering the U.S. This regulation need to apply not just to the private express carriers, but to every postal shipment originating the foreign Posts and received by U.S. Postal Services. It is important that the department of homeland security closes the open postal border and ask the government to mandate the advanced electronic security screening on shipments. Ahern as a principal at Chertoff Group as well as the former acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs as well as Border Protection in DHS knows this and need to work with those in position to remove this gap.