Friday, May 14, 2010

Final Time Sheet

Area 1: Assessing Individual and Community Needs for Health Education

28 hours: Collected data on suicide prevention in jails, optimal jail designs, taser use in jails, fit testing standards, and work out incentive programs for employees by using online journals and articles. Analyzed needs assessment data on tuberculosis screening procedures at the St. Louis County Jail.

Area 2: Planning Effective Health Education Programs

70 hours: Read through the current St. Louis County Employee Right to Know Program. I re-organized and re-wrote the program based on the guide lines the county set forth for what county employees are required to know about health and injury prevention.

Area 3: Implementing Health Education Programs

13 hours: Assisted and performed ergonomic evaluations for county employees following the Safety and Risk Management’s principles for correcting office space to provide more favorable conditions.

Area 5: Administer Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

6 hours: I met with St. Louis County Jail personnel and discussed the tuberculosis screening program. Together we re-wrote the program to include additional safety measures.

Area 6: Serve as a Health Education Resource Person

30 hours: I emailed and spoke on the phone with the tactical defense director of the Minnesota Department of Corrections about tactical defense trainings for jail personnel. I used what I found out about these trainings to inform the jail and my supervisor what different options were available. I went to the Duluth Public Safety Building to restock our first aid supplies for the annual sheriff safety trainings. I researched what different first aid supplies cost, how much of each item we needed, made an order list, and sent it out to the supplier. Once the supplies came in I delivered them to the Safety Building and restocked the Sheriff’s supply.

Other

213 hours: Attended a jail fire drill and procedures. I created an incident investigation report. I performed various office work such as copying, filing, revising meeting notes, made meeting outlines, and created sheriff’s inventory lists. I created a Public Works Shop Inspection Checklist. I attended monthly safety committee meetings. I took the Minnesota DNR’s ATV safety Training course to learn about DNR safety regulations on loading and transferring ATVs. I went to the court house to discuss indoor air quality and ventilation during restoration procedures. I looked into different duty belts officers were wearing to reduce back pain and on duty injury. I assembled first aid kits and performed fit testing for the sheriff’s department. I recorded what each sheriff had in their first aid kit and what size safety vest I issued them. I attended meth lab bust training and got to act as the “bad guy” the sheriff’s had to find when searching the house. I assisted in setting up for and attended St. Louis County Public Works Safety Day at Sprit Mountain in Duluth.

Total Hours Completed: 360 hours

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

My thoughts about my internship experience

  • My biggest challenge
I would have to say that my biggest challenge was making sure I got in all 360 hours. Between working my other job, class, studying, and my internship there wasn't really much time to do anything else. This was difficult for me because in the past I have always had some extra time to do other things but this semester my schedule was really tight. This semester showed me that I am able to complete things on time regardless of how busy I am.
  • If I could have changed one thing, it would have been...
If I could have changed one thing it would have been to not have to work another job so I could have spent more consecutive hours interning. My usual schedule was two or three hours in the morning broken up by either class or work and sometimes I would have to leave early in the day to go to work. I missed out on some meetings and events that I would have liked to attend but I had to leave for work.
  • How this internship impacted my career
Before this internship I never really thought about they safety side of health and wellness. Looking back on my experience with St. Louis County Safety and Risk Management I realize that preventing injury and illness is a very important part of health. I learned a lot about what to look for when working with employees to help them prevent injury. I have recently been looking into getting my masters in Environmental Health and Safety as well.

St. Louis County Safety and Risk Management Mission Statement and Overview

Maximizing the potential of St. Louis County employees while providing them with a safe and healthful workplace.