Field Placement: Asian Pacific
Health Care Venture, Inc. (APHCV)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Preceptor: Yunkyung Kim
Student Name: Jocelyn Medina
Year: 2003
Asian Pacific Health Care
Venture, Inc. is a community health center located in East Hollywood area of
Los Angeles County. APHCV’s mission is to plan, provide, advocate and
coordinate accessible, affordable, culturally competent and effective health
care services that targets underserved Asians and Pacific Islanders and offers
services to all individuals; and to provide programs of community economic development
for the benefit of low income API communities in Hollywood, the greater downtown
area, North Hollywood and any other areas with unmet needs in Los Angeles County.
My internship at APHCV began June 26, 2003 and continued to September 12, 2003
(12 weeks). My objectives at APHCV were to prepare for distribution and promotion
of March of Dimes (MOD) Prenatal Video in the Thai and Cambodian communities,
develop an evaluation plan for the MOD video, aid the project coordinator in
implementing the Food Stamps Kiosk Project (a touch screen food stamps screening
tool to be placed in the clinic lobby), and develop and prepare for the evaluation
of the food stamps kiosk.
I was able to successfully prepare for the MOD video distribution and evaluation
plan. For the marketing and distribution, I drafted a letter to the video storeowners,
created a “Steps your business can do” handout, describing the procedure
in letting community members borrow the video, an information sheet on what
the video contains and a fact sheet on the state of prenatal care in the Thai
and Cambodian community. These materials were tailored to each community and
translated for each. For the evaluation, I created an evaluation instrument
meant for a small group of Thai and Cambodian women (5-10) who will watch the
video and answer questions based on the video. The instrument will assess whether
or not they learned the specific objectives of the video, including healthy
nutrition during pregnancy, importance of folic acid consumption, appropriate
weight gain, things to avoid during pregnancy, and the importance of consistent
perinatal care. Unfortunately, the MOD video was not completed by the end of
my internship so I was not able to facilitate the evaluation. There was a delay
in getting the video dubbed in Thai and Khmer for various reasons, including
the turn around of staff at March of Dimes who was spearheading the project.
The Food Stamp Kiosk Project was also delayed and I was not able to see the
finished product by the end of my internship. The Food Stamp Kiosk Project was
funded by the Community Technology Foundation of California whose overall goal
was to educate potentially eligible Asian Americans (targeting the Vietnamese,
Cambodian, Korean, and Chinese communities in particular) about food stamps
benefits, eligibility, and application process through prescreening assistance
via the kiosk tool.
I was successful in completing the aesthetic additions to the kiosk, which included
designing the decal to be put on the side of the kiosk housing. I took over
much of the logistical details of ordering the kiosks and helped work with our
consultant programmer in mapping out the calculations for the food stamp screening
mechanism of the kiosk software. In terms of evaluation, I developed a short
questionnaire designed to be given to each community that will assess the kiosk’s
helpfulness and ease of use.
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