UNews - Sharon Yanicki

Rethinking health

trevor.kenney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:36:24 +0000

Although Canada's health-care system ranks among the world's best, we face an aging population, increasing rates of chronic disease and a dire shortage of health professionals. It's a host of problems that aren't going away – by 2011, a mere three years away, the demand for nurses and public health practitioners in Alberta and across Canada is expected to peak.

One thing is certain: the need for highly educated, well-trained health professionals has never been greater.

This fall, the U of L's School of Health Sciences launched a new Public Health degree program. As the only baccalaureate degree of its kind in Alberta, it gives students a new perspective on health.

"There is an evolution in our thinking about health. We're now looking at broader social determinants of health like income, working conditions, employment, transportation, education and housing," says U of L public health degree coordinator Sharon Yanicki.

The program will prepare graduates to be life-long learners capable of integrating new approaches with proven methods and will provide them with skills to work in a variety of roles in health promotion, policy and information analysis, as well as community development and project management.

In addition, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is increasing resources for those pursuing greater levels of education in health sciences. Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Ed McNally, every nursing student in the graduate program received a scholarship of $4,000 this September.

For U of L student Eva McLennan (BN '07), a busy mother of two as well as part-time employee at both Chinook Health and Lethbridge College, the scholarship confirms her goals.

"Of course receiving monetary assistance is beneficial and greatly appreciated – there are very real costs associated with education. But it's more than that. Receiving a scholarship also recognizes that you have something to contribute that makes you worthy of investment," says McLennan.

McLennan believes that having her master's degree will open doors on many levels.

"Today health consumers are better educated and expect more of the health system," she explains. "My graduate degree will give me greater understanding of the ways in which research influences current nursing practices."

Fellow student Karen Leskosek (BN '02) agrees. "The health-care system is constantly changing. Having my master's will enable me to approach client care, nursing education and research with innovation and determination," says Leskosek.

Looking ahead, the U of L takes confidence in knowing that a health plan centred on educating innovative leaders is firmly in place – it's one of the ways the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is helping ensure that the future of our health will remain in good hands.

Public Health degree fills niche

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:07:01 +0000

Matt Mitschke remembers when he heard about the new Bachelor of Health Sciences in Public Health degree program at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Until then, he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to study, or the kind of career he wanted to pursue. But after looking into the program and realizing that he would be taking a wide range of interesting classes that would in turn open a lot of doors at the end of four years, he knew he'd found something exciting.

Mitschke enrolled in the program's very first semester, which began in fall 2008, joining a small but eager group of new students in the School of Health Sciences.

Matt Mitschke, U of L public health student.

"I like the entire philosophy of the program," Mitschke says. "It's an upstream approach to health-care, identifying and preventing health- related issues before they actually happen."

The Bachelor of Health Sciences in Public Health degree is the only baccalaureate program of its kind in Alberta. Students in this non-clinical program choose between three broad areas of study: applied public health practice, health policy and promotion, and public health promotion.

In keeping with the tradition of liberal education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, the program requires students to take a breadth of classes in different disciplines – ranging from sociology and psychology to anthropology and kinesiology. The School of Health Sciences developed the program in conjunction with the Faculty of Arts and Science as well as the Faculty of Management to ensure graduates would emerge as critical thinkers in the field of health care, educated in a variety of disciplines and therefore equipped to approach public health issues in a comprehensive way.

"The program is unique in that it focuses on public health promotion, research and management rather than clinical aspects of health care," says Dr. Chris Hosgood, dean of the School of Health Sciences. "It combines social science disciplines with the concepts of public health and gives the School of Health Sciences greater diversity. The program allows us to collaborate with very respected Faculties at the U of L, and has brought us much closer to the centre of academic life on campus."

The School of Health Sciences will officially become a Faculty at the U of L on May 1, 2009.

Sharon Yanicki, public health program coordinator, believes the program will create awareness about what public health actually is, ease the employment crunch within the current health-care system and help to improve the overall health of many people.

"This degree is filling a niche," Yanicki says. "The majority of people working in the field of public health right now are nurses, who are in very short supply. We expect the program to fill positions in public health in a way that better supports the health-care system."

Public health workers are employed in a variety of areas, studying trends, recommending strategies and implementing plans for good health. A public health worker might focus on healthy aging, good nutrition in schools, access to physical activities or health patterns in a particular ethnic group.

Although the field of public health isn't new, it's an area that isn't all that well known or understood. The program aims to change that, and provide a new type of health-care worker who will work both on the frontlines and behind the scenes to help people make healthy choices and create healthier populations.

"The determinants of good health are varied and complex," Yanicki says. "The Public Health degree program educates students on the range of factors that impact health and addresses the need for trained public health workers in emerging areas, such as risk and health communications, information management, and surveillance and analysis of broad socio-demographic data."

To kick off the program, a scholarship fund was established that provides $4,000 to each newly accepted full-time student. An additional $2,000 is also available to students who qualify. The first group of graduates will receive their bachelor's degree in public health in the spring of 2011.

Resourceful approach guides Harris

trevor.kenney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:44:36 +0000

When Lorelei Harris was given responsibility for subject areas with which she was unfamiliar, naturally she fell back on her librarian training. Utilizing the resources at hand to educate herself in these new subjects, she quickly became a resource herself — all in a day's work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Library.

Harris, now the subject librarian for Health Sciences, Religious Studies and Shastri, practices what she preaches when it comes to research methodology.

Arriving on campus in August 2007 in a term position, she was literally handed a potpourri of subject areas. Whether she had previous experience with the areas or not, Harris quickly got up to speed on such unrelated subjects as political science, economics and religious studies.

"Starting as a contract librarian, I was given whatever needed to be covered," Harris says. "At the time I had quite a few different areas of focus and now that's been streamlined somewhat. I'm working with Health Sciences now, and I'm still learning a lot about my subject areas."

That tapering of focus is the essence of a subject librarian.

"Our role involves liaising with faculty, selecting material in a particular subject area and providing in-depth reference assistance for that subject area," Harris says. "We also provide classroom instruction for students in our areas, teaching basic research skills or walking them through the nuances of advanced subject-specific research tools."

Subject librarians are usually assigned based on educational background or interest in a particular field. Religious studies and Shastri were brand new areas for Harris, while health sciences was a more natural fit. Harris has a number of friends in nursing and a boyfriend in medical school.

"One of my favourite aspects of our work is going into the classes and teaching research skills," she says. "I also really enjoy the advanced reference service, the one-on-one or small group meetings we offer, and dealing with the advanced
research questions they may have.

"I love working with graduate students. It's exciting for me to get involved in their topic, and it's fun to see the light go on when we're able to find something they can use."

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Western Ontario graduate, Harris earned both her undergraduate (media studies) and master's (library and information science) degrees on the London, Ont., campus.

Her route to the library seems almost predetermined as she follows both her mother and grandmother into the profession.

Harris credits Judith Droessler, the longtime subject librarian for health sciences prior to her retirement, for easing the transition into her role. That tutelage has also helped her hit the ground running as she takes on a new challenge with the introduction of the Public Health program, which falls under the purview of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

"It's exciting to start building up a new core collection in this area," Harris says, adding she consults with Sharon Yanicki, who was integral in establishing the public health curriculum.

"From a library point of view, public health does have quite a bit of overlap with what we've been collecting in nursing so we do have a collection already. It's interesting for me to try to learn where to pull out specific information with a public health focus."

GET THE FACTS

• Harris was born and raised in Dorion, Ont., a small township of approximately 400 people, some 70 kilometres east of Thunder Bay

• While studying her undergraduate degree at Western, she participated in an exchange program where she studied history in Scotland

• Students or faculty may set up individual appointments with subject librarians for advanced research help. Harris can be reached at lorelei.harris@uleth.ca

• Subject librarians also work as generalists, staffing the information desk and offering advice on all subject areas. "One of the big things is getting a student or researcher to think outside their subject area and think from other disciplines and when we are dealing with those disciplines every day, it really helps us do that."

Rethinking health

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:43:09 +0000

One thing is certain: the need for highly educated, well-trained health professionals has never been greater.

This fall, the U of L's School of Health Sciences launched a new Public Health degree program. As the only baccalaureate degree of its kind in Alberta, it gives students a new perspective on health.

For U of L student Eva McLennan (BN '07), a busy mother of two as well as part-time employee at both Chinook Health and Lethbridge College, the scholarship confirms her goals.

McLennan believes that having her master's degree will open doors on many levels.

UNews - Sharon Yanicki

Rethinking health

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Public Health degree fills niche

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Resourceful approach guides Harris

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