I am a news nerd. Granted I am paid to be one -- my research assistant position involves reading or watching health news every weekday of my life. But it's my nature, too. I hate not knowing what's going on. So trust me, when I find out a day late that a study came out suggesting a link between premature births and autism, it's as upsetting as finding out from Facebook that a high-school friend is pregnant.
But I also like gluing myself to the news because it makes me think about all kinds of things I'd never encounter on a daily basis, including cool health careers.
When you don't know what to do with your life, trust me, you're always looking for inspiration -- and I promise this works.
Extra, extra: Peanuts are problematic
We all know peanut products are causing a news-o-rama with their salmonella scare, especially since discovering schools are among recipients of vats of possibly contaminated with PB.
Wanted: Diarrhea detectives
Ever thought about being an epidemiologist? They're pretty cool, especially members of Minnesota's Team Diarrhea who cracked the jalapeno-salmonella case this summer and have been working tirelessly on this PB problem.
Extra, extra: Your parents were right
An apple a day will get you an A...sort of. Research shows that the healthier you are, the better you do in school -- and, from personal experience, I agree, especially when it comes to non-physical stuff that has physical effects (read: STRESS).
Wanted: Tactful teachers
Well, we can't just let all the poor students of the world get crappy grades, can we? There are lots of health educators in the world who do individual interventions that help people change unhealthy behaviors -- like drinking all weekend, smoking because you're drunk and totally stressing about your homework on Monday morning because you spent all of Sunday in bed recovering. Or how to buy and prepare healthy foods when you're living on a tight budget. Or where to go for medical care and how to pay for it. The list goes on.
Extra, extra: Say how you feel about flu
Minnesota's working on a new pandemic flu plan and guess what -- you're invited! The state is asking for input on the ethics part, as in who gets limited resources and who gets them first if the flu goes on a major rampage? They've posted the state recommendations and are asking the public to submit their comments for the next couple months, and then they'll incorporate them into the final plan. Cool, huh?
Wanted: Outreach extraordinaires
From what I can tell in my education, it's becoming more and more important in public health to involve people and communities in what's going on that will affect their health. And somebody's gotta ask them -- might as well be you! There's not a specific field, I don't think, that does this, but if it's something you're interested in (I am!) and you start looking for it, this type of thing will pop up in a lot of different settings.
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