Student Achievements
Public Health Graduate Students Present at MIPERC Conference
October 04, 2021
Master of Public Health students Emily Pokorski, La’Portia Jackson, Jazzmin McGuff, and Hava Topolski had their IPE capstone project presented at the 14th annual Midwest Interprofessional Practice, Education, and Research Center (MIPERC) Conference Webinar on September 23, 2021.
MIPERC is a partnership of organizations created in 2007 with the mission to implement interprofessional education and practice within multiple disciplines for better quality patient care. MIPERC holds an annual conference with designated objectives for its participants. This year’s virtual conference focused on responding to diverse patient populations' needs through interprofessional advocacy, education, and research.
Pokorski, Jackson, McGuff, and Topolski all had the amazing opportunity to present their collaborative project titled Public Health Interprofessional Inclusion Project. Their topic addressed the issue of health care students being unaware of public health professionals’ efforts and roles in health care. The students’ solutions include introducing health care students to public health, resulting in better workplace collaboration, better preparedness in disasters, and awareness of public health’s purpose in health care.
The students were inspired to create their project after completing a simulation with MIPERC’s Interprofessional Education (IPE) Program on Social Determinants of Health.
“I think that in general, more people are learning about the field of public health due to the current public health crisis,” said Jackson, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. “However, there is still a disconnect even among other health/health science students that was apparent during the simulation.”
The four students are on track to complete their MPH in 2022. They are also active officers of GVSU’s MPH registered student organization, the Public Health Society. Huge congratulations to these four graduate students!