Are you looking for a rewarding and challenging internship or cooperative, hands-on education opportunity? Consider a student field experience, internship or practicum with the Oregon Health Authority’s Health Security, Preparedness and Response Program.
Target audience:
• Students enrolled in associate, undergraduate and graduate programs
• Students interested in gaining a holistic perspective on emergency/disaster response efforts
• No requirement for specific disciplines – this is a multi-disciplinary field
Experience with our program:
Students will serve alongside with Oregon Health Authority operations and policy analysts specializing in an array of public health and healthcare preparedness programs. Working on projects supporting analysis, evaluation, planning, collaboration and operations, students contribute to advancing Oregon’s systems for confronting serious public health hazards. For the student, the experience is structured to develop professional competencies, application of theories, professional skills, knowledge of the current state of the field and growth of the student’s professional network.
Students directly participate in team environments and via structured work plans to:
- Evaluate and update state public health preparedness plans for disease outbreaks, mass fatality events, mass casualty events, traumatic events such as mass shootings, and catastrophic events such as Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes.
- Support health equity initiatives and vulnerable populations planning.
- Evaluate past emergency response activities in order to streamline program processes and improve emergency response services for affected community members.
- Review policies and laws.
- Support volunteer management for the State Emergency Registry of Volunteer in Oregon with evaluation, outreach and program administration activities.
- Assess and support emergency information systems and emergency notification systems.
- Plan and support public health communications.
- Manage, interview and write for the statewide preparedness newsletter.
- And many other areas as needed to find a match between individual interest and program needs.
Specific domains and capabilities addressed include:
- Community preparedness for disasters
- Promote community resiliency after disasters
- Emergency operations coordination
- Emergency public information
- Fatality management
- Information sharing among partner agencies
- Mass care operations
- Medical countermeasure dispensing
- Logistics and materiel management
- Medical surge resources
- Non-pharmaceutical interventions
- Emergency responder safety
- Volunteer management
Goals of our student field experience program:
- Develop the future public health and emergency preparedness workforce.
- Provide individual students with the field experience needed to complete their degree programs.
- Leverage the fresh, diverse perspectives and creativity of students, and newer members of the work force.
- Increase community involvement in our work.
- To expand partnerships and networking opportunities with the academic community.
- Provide interns with opportunities for training, personal growth and advancement.
Location:
Ideally at the Portland State Office Building near Lloyd Center preferred, but there is flexibility to work with interns in other locations.
Dates:
We recruit on a rolling basis in order to accommodate the varied schedules of many different schools and programs.
Compensation:
No financial compensation is available at this time.