The job of university faculty is to prepare new young professionals. I get that. In fact, the reason I transitioned back into academics (like most of the professors who will read this) is because I wanted to influence students this way. However, I frequently find myself asking what “preparation” means. I’m not the smartest guy around, but I have come up with a couple of things that preparation should include.
1) Providing OPPORTUNITIES for students to gain and hone skills and abilities that are necessary to be a competent professional. Sometimes that includes providing them tools (skills), sometimes it involves creating the environment for them to “find” their own skills.
2) Teaching them how to learn. There is no way possible to teach a new professional everything they need to know to be a specialist in health education over the course of 120 credits. Learning content, and improving skills is a lifelong endeavor and so we should emphasize the ability to learn more than what is on the next test (BTW, I stink at this right now).
But, if one more senior walks into my office and says “I’m graduating nest semester, and I was wondering… what can I do with a degree in health science” I am going to SCREAM!! Shouldn’t you have thought about this a little earlier?
Why do some young people expect others to do the foot work for them on important life decisions? It is just a pet peeve I guess, but shouldn’t a person who has invested 3-4 years of their life in an educational pursuit have some idea of what the end game is?
I have taken some steps to better prepare these neoprofessionals in their job search. You are all welcome to see our compilation of job search sites at http://www.byui.edu/HealthSci/EmphasisWebsites.htm . I put this together after my first year because I thought it would help (many who come and ask about the above question have not even attempted to look at this site)… and I hold a seminar once a semester to talk about the job search (we have almost 1000 majors… about 6-10 come to the seminar). I want to help them, but perhaps more help than this is not helping but hindering their progression…
Maybe I’m becoming too cynical… Then again, maybe I’m not doing my job and preparing them to recognize all one can do with a degree in Health Science.
Thanks for listening… From the heart of the Rockies
T DUB
Many of you know where I work. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Brigham Young University-Idaho or its Parent affiliates.
Kelly House
rodneybbowden
donchaney
bethchaney
billcissell
karllarson
Jody Early
Joan Cowdery
Tyler has made excellent points. Of particular interest to me was the concept of “teaching them how to learn.” I see papers all the time and everything is from the internet in terms of references. At the risk of getting “clobbered,” particularly by those who “rely” on the internet for their information, what ever happened to the library?! There are some students, I would venture, who may not know where the library is located. Interestingly, this edifice has not become a dinosaur that has no utility in today’s world.
Tyler also asks the question, and I’ll cut his comment “short” to perhaps make my point, “Why do some young people expect others to do the foot work for them on important…” and here is where I will add my two cents, “academic decisions?” I recall some time ago when I saw a posting on the HEDIR by someone (I really don’t recall who and I really don’t want any to let me know, including the individual who posted the request if he or she reads this comment), who was willing to pay for someone to conduct the statistical analyses needed so that individual could complete the doctoral dissertation! Wow, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to statistics, but I sure had an excellent grounding in both my MPH and DrPH programs (Berkeley and UCLA respetively), in statistics. I tried to learn the processes that were used in doing various analyses, why one did or did not do certain things statistically in terms of the data, and developed (I apologize to all those statistics professors and to those who helped germinate this concept) an “axiom” that I pass to my students, “Don’t make the statistical analysis more sophisticated than the design warrants.” High powered statistical analyses can’t make up for a weak research design. Further, in most of these cases I have found that the research would be just as “compelling” if lesser statistical analyses were used, but used correctly.
I recall an article published in the Journal of School Health (Vol 55, #6, pp. 230 -233) by Alice Randolph, Robert McDermott, and Robert Gold “Use of Statistics in the Journal of School Heealth 1979-1983: A Content Analysis.” These individuals summarized by stating that, “An analysis of statistical contenty revealed that readers could be provided with access to school health reserach and evaluation….by knowing only a few statistical procedures.” They further stated that “Greater knowledge of statistics might assisat practitioners adapt reserach findings to rtheir respective work settings” and that “…such an endeavor wouild be a worthwhile objective of cotinuing education for school health professionals” (p. 233). I agree with this concept and maintain that one of the objectives of this type endeavor should be to teach individuals (students and practitioners alike), the “correct” use of statistics, given the type of research being conducted and the design being used in that research.
Returning to Tyler’s point about having someone else do the work, requesting assistance is one thing; asking someone to do the work for you, is certainly another.
Take care and happy statistical analysis!
Larry
Recently, I heard a criticism from someone who works in the community, someone who knows our program and students fairly well. In essence this person said: “you people believe that health educators are prepared to do almost anything, but that isn’t my experience.” I wonder sometimes if we exaggerate what jobs a health educator, particularly an entry level person with limited experience, is prepared for. In most fields, students receive intense training in a very narrow discipline, which qualifies them to work in that field. Our students receive more breadth, but less depth. Does that make them qualified for more jobs? Is it ethical to recruit more students to a major than there will be jobs available when they graduate? Do we even have an idea how many jobs are available?
For example, my youngest brother, prior to talking to me, decided to major in community health education. He graduated with a fairly high GPA last spring and has yet to find a related job in a community of nearly 400,000. I spoke to him on the phone recently and he asked where he should look for a job. Unfortunately, he has already tried most of the places I suggested.
I have heard similar comments from many of my undergradates. I usually tell them that there are jobs, if they are willing to move, but most of them don’t want to move very far. I try to be honest with new majors, telling them that there will likely not be many jobs locally related to health education and that they will need to move if they desire such a job.
SB
In response to your question, “Why do some young people expect others to do the foot work for them on important life decisions?”
I took a workshop a while back that included content on the “Characteristics of the Millennial Generation.” One of the seven traits identified by Howe and Strauss is “sheltered.” Students of this generation were sheltered by their parents and have lack problem-solving skills because their parents have always done things for them. They have what are called “Helicopter Parents” because the parents are always “hovering” around to protect their child. I suspect this might play a factor. What do you think?
SB makes excellent points in terms of honesty with majors. I also agree that these students need to be told that they may not find a job “close to home.” I also agree that we can’t paint a “pie in the sky” atmosphere that health educators are “superheros” who can do anything. If one looks at the roles and responsibilities of health educators, as delineated in the National Health Educator Competencies Update Project, we see that we do prepare individuals for a wide range of activities and provide them with skills to do these activities. However, we also need to have the “depth” as our colleague ED Glover so aptly states, “A mile wide and an inch deep.” Of necessity, health educators need to have broad perspectives. However, for those in the profession of training these health educators, we need to equip them with the skills to know how to secure knowledge they don’t possess. As such, this poses yet another challenge for us, which was mentioned by Tyler and commented on by me and also by aversniknowak. I agree that we have a lot of “spoonfeeding” occurring and that many individuals have led “sheltered” lives. Unfortunately, students feel that simply turning something (qualtity? to many what is quality?) and then expecting to be “rewarded” with a grade of “A” simply because something was submitted. Take a look at student dorm rooms? Why do students often take their clothing “home” so “mom can wash it?” We could go on and on with these types of examples, including the incident I mentioned related to the statistical analysis of data for a dissertation. When we “allow” these types of things to persist, we “facilitate” a “culture of having others do things for us.” Clearly these statements are generalizations and there are a lot more hard workers out there than “slackers,” but the “slackers” are the ones who may give the “hard workers’ a “bad rap.”
Just my “musings” this morning.
Thanks Larry,
I recently did some job opening analysis with a colleague (Kmccracken that posted here) on potential job opportunities for graduates. We did a sample of the jobsearch websites listed in the link above and found something very interesting. Of the 501 jobs sampled, 288 only required a BS in Health related field (HE, PH, HS etc) and out of those 288 about half required less than 3 years experience. I would say that is a pretty nice market. About 1/4 to 1/3 of the jobs posted are entry level. (jobs listed as 1-3 years of experience are in my opinion entry level).
Perhaps the job search difficulty is compunded by poor job search skills including resume writing and the ability to articulate actual experience. I tell my students that by the time they have graduated they have nearly one year of experience. Between an internship, student organization responsibilities, part time jobs that require similar skills (but may not be “actual” health education jobs), and implementation of course work (if structured by the professor in a way that is not “fake”) these professionals should be able to launch into a new job with only minimal orientation to the organization. Take for instance the kmccracken. She started in a small health department in tobacco (many of us have followed that same path) and was able to immediately implement her skills in needs assessment, group education, and implementation because she had done those things in projects and real application. Even without a “real job” many of these young professonals are capable of doing very well as health educators….
My point still stands… how do we do a better job of pointing these things out without “spoonfeeding” or doing it for them. I would love to hear students thoughts on this. Please discuss with your students and young professionals and ask them to contribute…. \
T Dub
Tyler,
The faculty members at Texas Woman’s University do a fairly good job of preparing students to search for employment prior to and upon graduation from the BS in Health Studies program. First, there is an intro course that lays out the roadmap of how they will develop knowledge, skills and competencies appropriate to a certified health education specialist through the curriculum and volunteer work. Courses in the curriculum are articulated in a manner to be sure that students become competent in each of the seven areas of responsibility delineated through the role delineation processes and articulated through the Competencies Update Project (CUP). There is a capstone course that reviews the knowldege, skills and competencies developed throughout the program.
There is a one credit hour internship/practicum preparation course and a 12 credit hour internship/practicum experience. Both in the capstone course and the internship/practicum preparation course, students are introducted to the job placement center and given an opportunity to practice development of a sound resume and strategies for marketing themselves based on their knowledge, skills and competenties. Many are rewarded by offers of employment in the agencies or organizations for which they perform their internships/practica.