APHA as a teaching tool for maternal and child health students

The annual meeting of the APHA represents a unique opportunity for current public health students to use practice based learning to explore the field of public health and further their understanding of scientific research and presentation in MCH. The Tulane MCH program supports elected students for APHA and a specific curriculum has been developed. The learning objectives include: 1) Enhanced understanding of the abstract process through critique of abstracts and related presentation 2) Demonstrate ability to prioritize topic areas based on link to personally defined career goals 3) Demonstrate ability to assess public health job market and through interaction with professional and represented agencies. After their visit, the students have to develop a report addressing how learning objectives were met. It is our opinion that through a guided curriculum, the MCH students attending APHA enhanced their understanding of the skills related to writing an excellent abstract, delivering a scientific presentation, and developing effective Power Point presentations. Students also explored career opportunities in a systematized way and identified networking opportunities. Students reported finding the guided systematized way and to be useful and encourage students to consider submitting an APHA abstract.