Policy-Related Practicums and Internships

The Resource Center for Health Policy provides summary information on practicums as a benefit to students. Efforts are made to ensure the information is correct, but RCHP cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies. Some of these opportunities may have expired, but are listed to give students an idea of potential places to look. If you would like to suggest corrections or additional opportunities for listing on this page, please email rchpol@u.washington.edu.

South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) - University of Texas Health Science Center

STEER transforms current and future health professionals by providing a compelling, community-based, educational experience that allows them to make the connection between the environment, public health and medicine. Our purpose is to reunite Medicine and Public Health.
http://steer.uthscsa.edu/
Eligibility: Students in health science fields or medicine
Time Commitment: 4 weeks, full-time
Location: Laredo or Harlingen, Texas
Compensation: Unpaid
Date Posted: Ongoing; six sessions per year

Paul G. Rogers' Memorial Health Policy Analysis and Advocacy Internship Program

Activities will vary based upon the successful candidates' interests, background and experience but may include legal, legislative, or economic research and analysis; communications; public education and policy advocacy campaigns; data collection; provision of training and technical assistance; or membership services. The intern will meet and work with thought leaders, Executive Branch officials, Members of Congress and their staffs, business and industry leaders and a wide variety of health care providers and policy experts.
http://www.nchc.org
Internship description
Eligibility: Graduate students
Time Commitment: At least 4 months during the 2009-2010 academic year
Location: Washington, D.C.
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: August 25, 2009

Pygmy Survival Alliance

Pygmy Survival Alliance helps empower a culture on the edge of extinction. Ongoing projects include: * Development and field-testing of a "health birthing" intervention for women aimed at reducing maternal and neonatal mortality. * Development of epidemiological tracking systems to collect and track morbidity and mortality data on a dispersed rural population of non-reading, indigenous people. * Expansion of services and interventions to high-risk villages in rural Rwanda.
http://depts.washington.edu/rchpol/docs/practicums/Pygmy07-23-09.doc
Practicum description
Eligibility: MPH students and other qualified volunteers
Time Commitment: Not listed; starting January 2010
Location: Not listed
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: July 23, 2009

Native People for Cancer Control Program

1) Native Tobacco Policy Summit - assist in planning, implementing, and evaluating regional tobacco policy summit (to be held in early December 2009). Any Special Skills Required for Project? Not really, but experience and passion in working with Native communities is a plus, as well as having a basic public health skillset.
http://depts.washington.edu/uwccer/npcc-about.html
Contact: Ms. Carrie Nass
Eligibility: Public health student
Time Commitment: Fall 2009
Location: Downtown Seattle, Met Park East Tower
Compensation: No
Date Posted: July 20, 2009

Group Health Student Intern IV

The candidate will support work on a project investigating health care costs and utilization associated with smoking and quitting. In this role, you will meet literature reviews, write brief summaries of articles of high and direct relevance to the project, and create and edit tables and figures from statistical analyses.
http://www.ghc.org, Req #091125
Practicum description
Eligibility: Currently enrolled or has completed a masters or graduate level program in health, business administration, or law
Time Commitment: Part-time, Summer 2009
Location: Seattle
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: June 25, 2009

Research!America's Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research

This position was created to assist the organization in its mission to make research to improve health a higher national priority - through education, advocacy and public policy activities. Within this framework, this position focuses solely on strengthening advocacy for an increased investment in U.S. funded global health research.
http://www.researchamerica.org
Practicum description
Eligibility: Graduate students and recent graduates with a public health, global health, political science, public policy or related degree
Time Commitment: Full-time, Summer 2009
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Compensation: Competitive stipend
Date Posted: May 7, 2009

Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion among Somalis

This project has two components: (1) development of a script for a health promotion video aimed at preventing chronic disease in the local Somali community, and (2) development of healthy Somali recipes for diabetics. This project is being done in partnership with Hope Academic Enrichment Center. The video will be disseminated to the Somali community and featured on EthnoMed.org.
http://www.ethnomed.org
Practicum description
Eligibility: Master's level student
Time Commitment: 4-6 hours/week
Location: Seattle
Compensation: No
Date Posted: April 15, 2009

PATH Internship - Qualitative research of indoor air pollution in West Africa

The intern will be based at the PATH Seattle office. As part of the Senegal Indoor Air Pollution team, s/he will 1) Develop a household survey to establish baseline data on factors contributing to indoor air pollution in Niakhar, Senegal. Areas of interest include structural characteristics of home ventilation, traditional and/or improved cookstove use, fuel types, and fuel acquisition costs 2) Identify potential partner organizations in Niakhar for participatory development of an intervention to reduce indoor air pollution 3) Participate in qualitative research in Niakhar, Senegal (depending on availability of travel funding and study priorities) with collaboration with PATH Seattle and local investigators.
http://www.path.org
Practicum description
Eligibility: Current enrollment in public health or social science graduate program
Time Commitment: Summer 2009
Location: Seattle
Compensation: Stipend
Date Posted: April 13, 2009

Seattle Children's Family Resource Center, Health Education

Title: "Statistical Tracking Methods Related to Patient and Family Use and Effectiveness of the Family Resource Center at Seattle Children's Hospital." The aim of this project will be to evaluate and improve the current tracking methods of patients' and families' use of the Family Resource Center (FRC) at Seattle Children's Hospital. The project will focus on linking data-gathering methods with conceptual targets and objectives. Possible strategies of tracking system development include: 1) Key informant interviews with representatives of other FRCs at pediatric and adult hospitals and health centers across the nation, 2) Compilation of a set of best practices, 3) Literature review
http://www.seattlechildrens.org/
Practicum description
Eligibility: Master's level student
Time Commitment: Summer 2009
Location: Seattle Children's Hospital
Compensation: No
Date Posted: April 8, 2009

Planned Parenthood Northwest Education Department

Youth Development Programs provide on-going, school-based pregnancy and STI prevention to youth who need it most. Evaluation Project: Knowledge Survey. 1) Enter, organize and analyze results from 2008-09 Knowledge Survey for Youth Development Program, 2) Analyze results from 2008-09 Knowledge Survey, 3) Highlight significant findings, 4) Provide report with results, analysis, and recommendations.
http://www.ppgnw.org/
Practicum description
Eligibility: Master's level student
Time Commitment: Completed by October 2009
Location: Seattle
Compensation: No
Date Posted: April 8, 2009

PATH HPV Vaccine Internship

PATH is implementing a project in four developing countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to understand and address information needs relevant to the potential introduction of HPV vaccination into public sector programs. The overall aim of this internship is to collate and analyze daily tally sheets of health workers implementing HPV vaccinations in three countries - Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam - to provide descriptive estimates of the numbers of girls vaccinated per session per health worker in each country.
http://www.path.org/
Practicum description
Eligibility: Master's level student with skills in literature review, database management and analysis, and writing scientific results
Time Commitment: Part-time and full-time work from June 1-August 28, 2009
Location: Seattle
Compensation: A small monthly stipend not to exceed $1,000 per month
Date Posted: March 25, 2009

Educational Video Assistant, Valley Medical Center

GetWellNetwork is an Interactive Patient Care (IPC) System, our system enables the patients to obtain critical medical information while lying in there hospital bed. As of right now Valley Medical Center (VMC) has 270+ educational videos loaded on there system. VMC plans to expand this patient education library. We are in need of some one who can script, film, direct, and produce high quality videos.
http://www.getwellnetwork.com
Practicum description
Eligibility: Student
Time Commitment: Not listed
Location: Renton
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: March 24, 2009

Human Services Intern, City of Bellevue

Primary task would be to participate in the development of the 2009-2010 Bellevue Human Services Needs Update, a biennial assessment of health and human services needs among Bellevue residents. Responsibilities include locating relevant data and doing analyses, assisting with focus groups and the distribution of consumer surveys to obtain qualitative data for the Needs Update.
http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/human_services.htm
Practicum description
Eligibility: Graduate student must have completed 1st year, entering 2nd year
Time Commitment: 40 hrs/wk, mid-June through September 2009
Location: Bellevue
Compensation: $17.00/hr
Date Posted: March 19, 2009

Healthiest State Campaign Internships

The Washington Health Foundation has internship positions in these areas:
--Public Affairs (Communications, Outreach, Health Education, Advocacy)
--Policy and Advocacy Research
--Direct Service through the Community Health Access Program (CHAP)
http://www.whf.org/
Practicum description
Eligibility: Ideal candidates will be bright, energetic self-starters who like to solve problems and complete tasks efficiently and effectively
Time Commitment: At least one quarter or semester, minimum of 10-15 hours per week. Summer internships are negotiable.
Location: Seattle
Compensation: Small stipend
Date Posted: March 18, 2009

PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative Internship

The Malaria Vaccine Initiative has begun work on a multi-disciplinary study designed to address community perceptions of vaccines and malaria in countries hosting our malaria vaccine trials. This student would be responsible for updating a preliminary annotated bibliography of related literature, completing a literary review, sifting through MVI trip reports and compiling a document that describes the current state of knowledge in the communities where we will be working.
http://www.path.org/projects/mvi.php
Practicum description
Eligibility: Master's level student in either global public health or the social sciences with an emphasis in global health issues
Time Commitment: Begin in March or April 2009 and work for 4-6 months
Location: Seattle
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: March 16, 2009

Health Leadership International (in Rwanda)

This project offers an incredible learning experience for a student seeking to help understand the process of comprehensive community development in an underserved, indigenous African population facing grave challenges. Field work includes development and field-testing of a "health birthing" intervention for women aimed at reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and development of epidemiological tracking systems to collect and track morbidity and mortality data on a dispersed rural population of non-reading, indigenous people. HLI hosts several trips a year to Rwanda and/or Laos.
http://healthleadershipinternational.org/index.htm
Practicum description
Eligibility: MPH student or other qualified volunteer
Time Commitment: July 2009
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: March 12, 2009

Survey Experience: Food Establishments - PHSKC

King County is the 2nd place in the country to mandate nutrition labels next to menu items in chain food restaurants. But there have been no studies to show how effective this controversial policy is in promoting healthy eating. For this project, we are surveying customers outside fast food and coffee chains to collect receipts, ask what they order, if they see or use nutrition labels in restaurants, and find out how many calories they think they should have each day.
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/nutrition/healthyeating.aspx
Practicum description
>Eligibility: Masters level public health, nutrition or nursing students
Time Commitment: At least 6 hours/week, April - June 2009
Location: King County, Washington
Compensation: None
Date Posted: March 2, 2009

Public Health - Seattle & King County

The practicum project will inform the design of an intervention aimed at increasing the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV-infected individuals in King County and Washington State. The objective of the practicum will be to evaluate perceived barriers to initiation of ART and attitudes toward the proposed intervention among HIV-infected individuals.
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health.aspx
Practicum description
Eligibility: MPH student
Time Commitment: 120 hours total
Location: Seattle
Compensation: Not listed
Date Posted: February 19, 2009

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Colon Cancer S.T.A.R.S. Support, Treatment, Awareness, Resources, and Screening

The MPH applicant will work specifically with the Colon Cancer STARS coalition on Fundraising/Grant writing/Coalition Building, and will assist with the Mercer Island Rotaries Half Marathon for Colon Cancer Awareness and Rotary Charities.
http://www.fhcrc.org/
Practicum description
Eligibility: MPH student
Time Commitment: 10 hours/week, starting March 2
Location: Fred Hutch, 1100 Fairview Ave. N.
Compensation: No
Date Posted: February 18, 2009

Sea Mar Community Health Center Practicum Opportunity

Sea Mar Community Health Center is looking for assistance in reviewing and improving current quality improvement tools and researching and utilizing best practices to develop ongoing templates and processes for quality improvement in the organization.
http://www.seamar.org/
Practicum description
Eligibility: Graduate student with an interest in health care quality, bioinformatics, statistics, and/or health care management
Time Commitment: Contact organization
Location: Contact organization
Compensation: Small stipend potentially available
Date Posted: February 17, 2009