Internship - Enteric Disease Interviewer - Temporary Aide

Tentative Start Date:  6/1/2024

The Work Unit

The Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response (DCPHR) is the department’s lead surveillance, planning and response arm for public events including communicable disease outbreaks and epidemics, pandemics, bioterrorism, and other public health and mass casualty events and disasters. The division includes the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response; State Public Health Laboratory; Health Equity Branch, Communicable Disease Branch; Immunization Branch; Public Health Informatics, Reporting, Technology Branch; Refugee Branch; and Operations Branch. The Division exists to ensure that the Department has the ability to effectively prepare for, monitor, detect, diagnose, investigate, and nimbly respond to all types of conditions, events and disasters that impact the public’s health. 

The Communicable Disease Branch (CDB) monitors, investigates, and controls epidemic and communicable diseases affecting the public health in Colorado, required under Colorado statute, including enteric infections, invasive bacterial infections, respiratory infections, vaccine preventable diseases, zoonotic diseases, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and healthcare-associated infections.

Within CDB, the Foodborne, Enteric, + Waterborne Diseases (FEWD) Program consists of three units: Foodborne, Enteric, + Waterborne Diseases Response Unit; Wastewater Surveillance Unit; and Enteric Special Projects Unit. The Foodborne, Enteric, + Waterborne Diseases Response Unit conducts surveillance for and responds to clusters and outbreaks of foodborne, enteric, and waterborne diseases; it also contains the Enteric Disease Interview Team (EDIT). The Wastewater Surveillance Unit is responsible for wastewater surveillance of all pathogens and collaborates with wastewater utilities; the National Wastewater Surveillance System Center of Excellence is housed in this unit. The Enteric Special Projects Unit is responsible for CDC-funded enteric special projects, including FoodNet and the Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence.

The Position
 

Students will be placed within the Enteric Disease Interview Team (EDIT) which is a team of enteric disease interviewers that conduct routine enteric/foodborne disease case interviewing, case investigation and outbreak response on behalf of CDPHE and local public health departments (LPHA). These functions are essential to communicable disease investigation and response. Students will gain valuable disease investigation skills to prepare them for professional roles as epidemiologists, case investigators, or disease intervention specialists. 

Smart Objectives: 

The student intern will complete at least 75 enteric disease interviews over the course of three months, documenting their case investigations in the state surveillance system and supporting the team with outbreak investigations as needed.

Deliverables or outcomes: Students conduct 75 enteric disease interviews with the support of the EDIT supervisor.  Students will gain public health interviewing experience to gain key skills needed to professionally develop towards becoming an epidemiologist and position them for professional field positions after graduation.

Which Public Health Core Competencies skills does the project develop? 

Communication, Cultural Competency, Public Health and Health Care Systems