Session Updates
Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3
Session 1
Due to inclement weather on January 7th and 8th, the live training for Session 1 was canceled and converted to webinar presentations. Participants can view the presentations on KS-TRAIN, beginning the week of January 21st. Thank you to Debbie Nickels and her team at KDHE for their hard work to get these webinars recorded and posted!
Because of the cancellation, Session 2 will be held entirely at KDHE in Topeka on March 18th-19th. There will be no Wichita site for this session.
Session 2
Session Two of the Kansas Core Public Health Program took place at KDHE in Topeka on March 18-19, 2010. Day One’s focus was surveillance and epidemiology. A panel of surveillance specialists representing KDHE, Kansas schools, and Kansas hospitals explained how they monitor health across the state. The class also heard from an epidemiology panel, which explained the roles of epidemiologists in public health. Each panelist led a small group of 3-5 CPH students through a real-life disease outbreak scenario. The groups discussed how to best handle the scenarios and presented their solutions to their classmates.
Day Two focused on community partnerships. Using actual examples like H1N1, the 2006 ice storms, floods, and the Greensburg tornado, students learned how KDHE partners with communities during environmental disasters as well as public health outbreaks.
CPH participants also gave presentations of their own. Groups of students took virtual tours of a KDHE bureau and shared their findings with the class in creative fashion! Group examples included the Newsroom of the Bureau of Environmental Health, the Web of Knowledge from the Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention, and Public Health Informatics Jeopardy.
The students also learned a few practical steps to creating budgets and developing grants from KUSM-W’s Judy Johnston. Dan Kahl and John Leatherman, both from K-State, wrapped up the session with presentations about rural community engagement. They shared how K-State is partnering with rural communities to improve cultural, human, social, political, and financial capital.
Session Three will take place on May 20-21, 2010. It will be held in both Wichita and Topeka. The sites will be connected through ITV.
Click here for the Session 2 Newsletter
Session 3
The third session of the Kansas Core Public Health Program took place on May 20-21, 2010, at KDHE in Topeka and KUSM-W in Wichita. ITV connected the two sites.
Day One’s focus was on public health policy and planning. Dr. Marvin Stottlemire, KUMC, presented Effective Public Manager’s Leadership Attributes, and explained the importance of emotional intelligence as well as other character attributes necessary for being a successful leader. Dr. Susan Kang, KDHE, gave the class an update on the latest legislative issues related to public health that are being currently discussed in the Kansas Legislature. Commissioner Tim Norton, Sedgwick County Government, and his wife Dr. Susan Norton, Wichita State University, presented the class with practical steps and tips concerning how to approach elected officials about public health issues. To wrap up the day, Dennis Highberger, Kathy Walker, Amy Swan and her father, Bob, shared their experience of forming the breastfeeding bill, which was successfully passed into Kansas law in 2006, and declares a woman’s right to breastfeed in public.
The focus of Day 2 was on public health law and advocacy. Elaine Schwartz, Kansas Public Health Association, facilitated a panel of members representing organizations that frequently advocate for public health issues in Kansas. Among those participating in the panel were: Peter Hancock, Kansas Health Policy Authority; Anne Nugent, Kansas Health Institute; Doug Cruce, Kansas Judicial Branch; and, Representative Lana Gordon, Kansas Legislature. Following the panel, Robert Parnacott, Sedgwick County Courthouse, gave a presentation on public health law. He guided the class through a hypothetical scenario about infectious disease reporting and HIPPA requirements in order to illustrate which agencies are given authority by law during such public health activities. He also explained which statutes from the Bench Book were relevant to the scenario and why.
CPH co-director Suzanne Hawley finished the session with a discussion regarding the participants’ final project topics. These projects will require at least 100 hours of work throughout the year and will be presented at the graduation session in November.
Session Four will take place on July 15-16, 2010, in Wichita, KS, and will feature One Health Kansas speakers and an Environmental Health Tour.
Click here for the Session 3 Newsletter
