Dartmouth Institute MPH Internships Address Key Issues in Healthcare
As The Dartmouth Institute looks forward to graduating the Class of 2022 in its online/hybrid MPH program this spring, it is proud to recognize the accomplishments of this talented group of healthcare leaders—who have successfully completed their field internships while maintaining their busy professional lives and working through another year of the pandemic.
Below, read about how three students have been applying their practicum experience to address some of the most pressing issues in healthcare and how their MPH training is informing their career goals.
Qualitative Analysis of Systemic Drivers of Burnout and Wellbeing Among Oncology Professions at D-HH’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center
Sasha Yanes MPH’22
Sasha Yanes’ internship work reflects the need for health systems to intervene on behalf of their clinical staff to identify drivers that reduce burnout and restore wellbeing—a key national priority of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
In our region, Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) is continually recognized as a high-quality cancer center, including recognition as the only cancer center in New Hampshire to be designated by the National Cancer Institute. However, burnout and turnover among staff has increased, resulting in an estimated 1,000 empty positions to refill across all clinical locations.
For her project, Yanes worked with the Promise Partnership, which focuses on
quality improvement initiatives for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and its oncology services. She conducted a thorough analysis of the results of a survey sent by the Partnership to staff in the spring of 2021—asking them what wasn’t working well, what could be improved, and any other information they wanted to share.
Yanes found the primary driver of burnout to be “lack of personnel resources,” and conversely, that “a sense of security and community,” primarily through collaboration, drove wellbeing.
“I learned that these interconnected drivers exist both at the micro and macro levels of the system,” she explains. “Many survey responses suggested that drivers of wellbeing largely exist among team members, whereas drivers of burnout are more systematic. We put an exorbitant amount of pressure on providers to deliver quality care and have yet to put systematic improvement initiatives in place to care for these providers.”
Yanes, who is based in New York and has a proven track record of success working at high-growth startups in the financial and healthcare sectors, says her applied practice experience has broadened her scope of interests. “I’m eager to identify solutions that satisfy provider and patient needs, improving both their experiences and their health outcomes,” she says.
Up Next:
Teammate Social Impact—Improving Employee Wellbeing in a Large Healthcare System
Nahshon Deering MPH’22
Assessing the Value of Integrated Specialty Care Through Clinical, Financial, and Operational Outcomes
Julianna Maisano MPH’22