Careers

Description:

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH)’s Office of Communicable Disease Epidemiology (OCDE) Foodborne and Enteric Disease program is currently recruiting 1 public health graduate student.

Primary goals for the graduate students who join the team are to support local public health and to improve the efficiency, completeness, and timeliness of disease surveillance. For the student(s), this position will provide rich real-world experience in public health practice and the valuable opportunity to directly contribute to and learn about local, state, and national approaches to communicable disease surveillance. At OCDE’s discretion, especially engaged students may be able to analyze surveillance data for a master’s project/thesis or practicum.

FOODBORNE/ENTERIC DISEASE DUTIES:

Duties will mainly consist of interviewing Washington State residents who have laboratory-confirmed Salmonella or Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) infections, as well as data entry for these interviews. As opportunities arise, additional tasks could include: case interviews for other foodborne diseases; assistance with outbreak investigations; data management; and providing surge capacity in other OCDE program areas.

• Assist in outbreak investigations, which could involve interviewing both cases (ill persons) and controls (non-ill persons)
• Maintain confidentiality/privacy of protected health information
• Provide health education to cases
• Data entry
• As time, resources, or needs permit:
• Data analysis, interpretation, and presentation (graphs, tables)
• Assist with form revisions
• Oral presentations
• Possibilities for other opportunities/tasks within OCDE (e.g., interviewing cases with other foodborne/waterborne enteric infections, performing miscellaneous foodborne disease activities, providing assistance for non-enteric disease investigations, or shadowing environmental health staff or local public health partners)

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Worksite: Home-based
• Hours: 10 hours/week on average during the academic year (flexible to accommodate course schedules) and 20 hours/week on average during the summer. After initial training, we anticipate requiring at least two evening or weekend shifts per week (e.g., 5-8 pm weekdays or Sat/Sunday afternoons). Because of increased workload in summer months, additional hours in summer may be possible, depending on funding levels. Fewer hours (<10/week) can be expected during the slower winter season, to offset increased summer hours.

• Currently enrolled in a public health graduate program (MPH or MS) in Epidemiology or Environmental & Occupational Health
  • Other public health-related programs or doctoral candidates may also be considered
• Knowledge or current training in epidemiology of communicable diseases, basic biostatistics, and concepts of disease surveillance
• Keen and demonstrable interest in surveillance for communicable diseases, especially foodborne and enteric conditions
• Experience or current training in data cleaning, analysis, and presentation
• Excellent ability to communicate in clear, professional, and friendly manner over the phone, including adeptness in speaking with people of diverse backgrounds
  • Desired: experience in interviewing, patient interaction, or other customer service
  • Fluency in Spanish or other languages desirable but not required
• Willingness to adjust to sometimes fast-paced work environment, changing priorities, and evolving work expectations

Interested students should submit cover letter and resume to Noël Hatley, MPH (Foodborne and Enteric Disease Epidemiologist) at noel.hatley@doh.wa.gov.

Please feel free to contact Beth Melius, MN/MPH

(Foodborne and Enteric Disease Supervisor)

by email (beth.melius@doh.wa.gov) or phone (206-518-1479)

with any questions about this position.