I cannot believe that I am already 11 weeks into my practicum placement with Halton Region’s Public Health Surveillance and Evaluation (PHSE) team! My time here has been flying by and I’m learning so much about analysis and reporting of surveillance data, and conducting program evaluations.

There are two main projects that I am working on here. The first involves the analysis and interpretation of survey data regarding health information within Halton Region to create Health Indicator Reports. These reports usually include demographic comparisons by age, sex, income, municipality, and education, and can be found at halton.ca/healthstats. I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of these reports, looking specifically at data related to attitudes towards drinking during pregnancy and breastfeeding in public, Lyme disease awareness and protection, and heat-related illness. Working on these reports has allowed me to learn to use SPSS for data analysis and has improved my skills in Microsoft Excel and Publisher. I’ve learned a lot about the importance of data presentation and have enjoyed creating reports that may help to inform programs within Halton.

The second project that I am involved in is a process and outcome evaluation of surveillance reports that the PHSE team produces. Using mixed methods, we aim to determine the reach, staff satisfaction, readability and usefulness of the surveillance reports. This information will then be used to inform improvements to future reports to ensure that they are meeting the needs of the Health Department. There will be multiple phases to this project and I have been involved in creating the evaluation plan and survey tool for the first phase of the evaluation. Working on this project has enabled me to learn to use an online survey software called SelectSurvey and has taught me how to create a comprehensive evaluation plan. I’ve learned so much about the intricacies of creating good survey questions and have really enjoyed the process of seeing this project evolve over the term. We are almost ready to send the survey out to Health Department staff and I am excited to see what the results will reveal!

I have enjoyed my time here and have appreciated the opportunity to see how a Public Health Unit operates. Halton Region has provided me the chance to explore some personal areas of interest and my supervisors are always looking for new opportunities to support my learning and development. Overall, I’ve found Halton Region to be a friendly and welcoming work environment and would recommend it to any future students considering completing their practicum here.