Case Study Competition in Health Ed
Fall 2022
In October of 2022, I competed in the Regional Case Study Competition in Health Education. I was required to develop an implementation and evaluation plan for a health education program on a pre-determined topic while working with two other health education students. Our topic was to develop an education program intended to help daycare providers in rural Indiana encourage healthy eating for the children in their care. We identified our priority population, completed a needs assessment, wrote program objectives, and utilized a learning task model. We then presented our fully developed and evidence-based program to a board of judges and won first place in our region.
Going into this project, I felt underprepared compared to my teammates and competition. I did not have a lot of experience with this type of research, and I wasn’t very far into my program. However, I approached this project with and open mind and learned a lot, both from my mentors and my teammates. My teammates helped guide me through the areas of this project with which I was unfamiliar and allowed me to build on my previous knowledge and learn and explore new aspects of my discipline.
Research and program development in my discipline typically follows three steps. These steps are planning, implementation, and evaluation. We completed tasks in all three of these steps, and ended up with a evidence based program that could be replicated in actual practice to yield positive results. To make this program as successful as possible, we gathered secondary data on the individuals this program would serve and their current needs, as well as the resources available in the geographic area. We utilized existing data from existing research and reputable sources. This included United States Census Data, as well as data from the area’s local health offices. This could sometimes prove challenging, because it was difficult to find information that was specific to the small rural area for which we were developing this program. We found that utilizing local sites can be a great way to get reliable information on what resources our priority population already has. However, we ran into issues with some secondary data we needed not existing, and we were not able to collect primary data.
Our project was a comprehensive and evidence-based plan to give daycare providers in rural Indiana the resources and education they needed to provide nutritious food to the children in their care. The logic model we used was evidence based for health education. Our program involved four educational sessions in different places around the county. In our needs assessment, we realized that one barrier for this population was finding time to attend these sessions, so we planned for them to be in the evening. Our evaluation plan included checking in with the attendees through phone or email and using an internal evaluator to analyze and organize the qualitative and quantitative data we would collect. This is a plan the Indiana department of health could use, and it gave us the opportunity to get feedback from health education professionals that would make us better health educators in the future.
After completing the project, we presented to a board of judges. Some judges were professors, while others were working in public health or health education. We presented all the details of the program, including our needs assessment, logic model, and evaluation tools. After presenting, the judges questioned us. I found that presenting wasn’t as intimidating as I initially thought. I was proud of the work I completed, and I was excited to get the judge’s feedback and answer their questions. Some of their questions made my nervous because they asked about aspects of the program we hadn’t thought about. Most of these questions were about how we chose our objectives and about certain aspects we weren’t thorough enough on. But we were honest and had a constructive conversation with the judges about areas we hadn’t thought through all the way. It was very beneficial, and I learned that this type of constructive feedback is essential in real program development.
The biggest thing I learned from this experience is that research is not scary. While it can be intimidating at times, the process of research is challenging, and the result is rewarding. Next time I am faced with a project like this, I will approach it knowing that I can complete challenging and sometimes overwhelming tasks. I also gained a lot of valuable skills with collecting secondary data. I can use all these skills for future research projects and in my career as an occupational therapist. As an occupational therapist, I will have to use primary and secondary data to create evidence based therapy programs for my clients. Everything I’ve learned from completing this project will aide me in developing those programs in the future.