Health department employees continue to better themselves for the community

Hill County Health Department employees work hard to provide quality public health services to all of Hill County. If we are doing a good job, the effort often goes unnoticed because the majority of work done is preventing issues from occurring in our community.

The constant surveillance of communicable diseases, investigations, inspections and prevention of these diseases spreading throughout the community is just one example of what is done on a day to day basis in our department. Our work is extremely valuable to the well-being of our community, and we have a passion for this work that cannot be stifled.

A part of that passion is shown by the drive of our employees to continually look for ways to improve themselves, and gain more knowledge in their positions. Continuing education is always on-going for the employees of the health department, and recently three of our employees successfully completed courses that will allow them to better serve our area. I wanted to take this time to recognize them and their achievements.

Diona Buck. program assistant for the health department, successfully completed a course through Montana State University in Bozeman to become a certified community health worker. The CHW instructor-guided curriculum took approximately seven weeks - 85 hours - to complete and consisted of four online 15-hour learning modules and a 25-hour on-the-job supervised experience. As a CHW, Diona builds individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy. Research consistently demonstrates that CHWs increase care outcomes and quality of care in rural populations. The training and retention of CHWs is essential for improving health care for rural Montanans.

Nicole Hungerford, WIC coordinator for the Health Department, successfully completed a graduate certificate in public health through the University of Montana. For the certificate, students must successfully complete 12 credits which can include four core courses or three core and one elective course of the master's in public health curriculum. This graduate certificate allowed Nicole to further her knowledge in different areas of public health such as epidemiology, social and behavioral science in public health, program evaluation and research methods, and community partnerships.

Bridget Kallenberger, lead public health nurse/public health emergency preparedness coordinator for the health department, successfully completed three different certification courses. Bridget's dedication and passion for public health shined through in her successful completion of the following courses:

• Certified public manager from Arizona State University: Is a nationally recognized leadership development program. The purpose is to develop more effective public managers and improve services to all taxpayers. It is a comprehensive course with public health managers acquiring and then applying best practices and theory to their management behaviors and strategies using prescribed sets of professional competencies. The main goal is to improve the performance of public sector managers and the organizational performance.

• Certified hospital emergency coordinator from National Disaster Life Support Foundation: incorporates all hazards concept approach to ensure hospitals are prepared to provide continued care during emergencies and disasters.

• Leading adaptive change in public health certificate from National Association of County and City Health Officials is an extensive course designed to help tackle the complex challenges facing the field of public health and health care. The concepts and principles of adaptive leadership have broad applications in the fields of public health and health care. The framework can be beneficial in managing organizational change, implementing community health improvement planning, developing leadership and workforce, strengthening community partnerships, and navigating changing political, social and economic climates.

Diona, Nicole and Bridget have worked hard and shown great passion for their jobs by completing these programs. Congratulations on all of your achievements, and thank you for your dedication to Hill County Health Department and our community.

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Kimberly Larson, BS, CPH, is director/lead local health official at Hill County Health Department.