# Presentation: 460225

## IHS Injury Prevention Specialist Fellowship Program

- First class:  Began in 1987
- Participants:  1987-2006: 227
- PDF: 2003,2005,2006: 32

## Epidemiology

| Focus | Data collection and analysis | Community-based programs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Education Pre-reqs | Bachelor’s | None |
| Training & experience
Pre-reqs | 2 core courses
3 yr. PH,
2 yrs. IP
 | 1 core course
1 yr. IP |
|  |  | 
 |

- Program Development

## Epi Fellowship

- Year-long project
- 4 courses:
- Project development
- U Michigan Summer Epidemiology courses
- IP Field course
- Oral and written presentations

## Program DevelopmentFellowship

- Year-long project
- 4 courses:
- Program development
- Coalitions and program evaluation
- IP Field skills
- Presentations, marketing, and resource development
- Between course assignments:
- Function of coalitions
- Organize and conduct a focus group
- Tribal codes and law enforcement

## Program Development Fellows (2003,2005, 2006)

- Many are tribal members (78%)
- Many are employed by tribes (72%)
- From all Areas, except Billings (Thank you, Area IP Specialists and TSC members!)
- Many are IP coordinators (38%)
- Great diversity of occupations, e.g.,  police, nursing, CHR, EH, health education
- Projects focus on leading injuries

## PDF Areas:  Acceptances

- Aberdeen  	4	Alaska	  5
- Albuquerque 	3	Bemidji	  3
- Billings		0	California	  4
- Navajo		3	Nashville	  2
- Oklahoma	3	Phoenix	  4
- Portland	1	Tucson	  4

## PDF Fellows:  Job Titles

- IP coordinator: 12
- CHR or CHR supervisor: 4
- EH Officer/sanitarian: 3
- PHN or CHN: 3
- Tribal health educator: 2
- Traffic safety officer
- Area Deputy IP Specialist

## PDF Fellows:  Job Titles

- Medical or EH secretary
- IP education specialist
- Police lieutenant
- Injury epidemiologist
- Office manager
- MADD executive director

## PDF Projects

- Motor vehicle	         	12
- Other unintentional	 9
- Intentional injuries	 7
- All injuries			 4

## Long-term Follow-up Survey

- Response rate = 75% (86/115)
- Average years since graduation = 9

## Long-term Follow-up Survey

- At least 5% of current work is IP = 71%
- At least 25% of current work is IP = 48%
- Working for:
- 	IHS = 59%
- 	Tribes/AN Corps. = 14%
- 	Other Federal agencies (CDC, HRSA, FDA, 		NIOSH, US Coast Guard) = 15%

## Was the fellowship year worth the time and effort you devoted to it?

- 100% (86/86) = “Yes”

- “Best training I ever had in the PHS.”
- “It changed the way I viewed my job on a daily basis.”
- “Allowed me to pursue graduate level coursework in epidemiology.”
- “It was a highlight of my work life thus far.”

## Slide 14

## Did the Fellowship influence your professional career in any way?  

- 83 % (71/86) = “Yes”

- ”I stayed in injury prevention when I could have left for a promotion.”
- “The value of IP had been impressed upon me and it became much more than ‘just a job’...”
- “I have made it (IP) my career in PHS.”
- “It presented additional career opportunities through networking, certification, and visibility.”

## Yes: 		66% No: 		20%Not sure:  	12%

**Did your fellowship **_**project**_** lead to some positive results?**

- “It has provided the justification to offer a degree in injury prevention at a tribal college.”
- “My project resulted in over $500,000 in roadway improvement for the San Carlos Apache Nation.”
-  “The Native Peoples’ Brain Injury Council has formed with representation from Native regions within the United States.”
- “The project is still being conducted in Alaska.”

**Should the Fellowship be continued?**

**Yes = ****	****	****83%****No = ****	****	****  2%****Not sure =   15%**** **

##  “More work needs to be done on intentional injuries.”“Provide IP topics and projects in alignment with meeting the GPRA indicators.”“Have a training evaluation  specific to each fellow and their project.” 

**How might the fellowship  be improved?**

## 2007 Epi Fellowship

- Project development course at CDC
- University of Michigan:  more courses:
- Public health surveillance
- GIS for epidemiology
- Community-based interventions
- Epidemiology of injury and violence
- Epi Info
- NEHA credits
- Continue sequence of 2 PDF/1 Epi