Field Placements: Orange County Health Care Agency -- Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Program
Location: Santa Ana, CA
Preceptor: Pauline Stauder and Mardee Jara
Student Name: Leona Patel
Year: 2002

My field studies took place at the Orange County Health Care Agency, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Program. I completed 400 hours of field work at this location from June 2002 to September 2002. I was a Health Education Intern for the MCAH Health Education Department, focusing on men's reproductive health. Pauline Stauder was my preceptor, but I worked closer with Mardee Jara, the Health Education Assistant.

Within the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Program, there are services in the areas of child health, women's and men's reproductive health, and perinatal health. However, more of the services are geared towards women and children. There is a great need for reaching and educating more men about reproductive health. Title X has addressed this need in the Statement of Work for the Orange County Health Care Agency and has set objectives for the County to fulfill. My objectives, which were based on the Title X objectives, focused on developing reproductive health education for males and outreach for hard to reach males. These objectives included: 1) developing a detailed instruction plan for a men's reproductive health presentation; 2) developing an outreach plan to educate hard to reach men about family planning and reproductive health services; and 3) creating a prostate cancer brochure for the Health Care Agency's use. In addition, I was to participate in the health education summer outreach by assembling and distributing packets of information to various organizations, in order to educate the community at large about MCAH and clinic services.

The tasks I carried out in order to develop the men's reproductive health presentation included researching and compiling information on various topics, such as male anatomy, birth control methods, sexually transmitted infections, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. I used existing education material and the Internet as my sources of information. Similar methods were used to complete the prostate cancer brochure. To develop the men's outreach plan, I searched through resources such as the Yellow Pages and a resource guide for Orange County to find specific outreach locations.

In addition to the objectives I completed from my scope of work, I took part in a few other health education activities. Throughout my internship, I attended monthly health education staff meetings and a quarterly overall Health Promotion staff meeting. I had the opportunity to attend a conference that discussed the County's plan to increase the percent of children with health insurance. I also accompanied the health educators to family planning presentations at domestic violence shelters and community centers. Lastly, another intern and I created a lobby display on immunizations and back-to-school physicals.

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