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Remote Epidemiology Course: A Student’s

Intellectual Journey Essay

Viviana Rivera

University of North Florida

HSC 3500: Epidemiology

Prof. Lukens Bull

November 20, 2020

Remote Epidemiology Course: A Student’s Intellectual Journey Essay

Prior to starting this course, I was personally not very fond of what I was going to be

learning about during the semester. I would constantly ask myself questions such as what is

epidemiology, how does this pertain to public health, or when in my career will I be able to

apply this knowledge. Since we are in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, the majority of

our class has been taught via remote instruction due to health risks. I feel that for me

personally, being completely online for all of my classes has made learning slightly more

difficult and it can feel harder to retain information at times. However, this information packed

course has actually opened up a whole different perspective of potential career choices as well

as a vast amount of new material that I am able to use in the future. Epidemiology has been

extremely beneficial for widening my span of knowledge with information that will greatly

benefit me to know later on in my life and my career. My intellectual journey paper will focus

on my prior epidemiology knowledge, social determinants of health, and comparing thoughts

about Covid-19 from August to current day.

So, coming into this fall semester I really had not thought much what the course of

Epidemiology was going to be about or how it could potentially benefit me in the future.

Epidemiology is formally defined as “the method used to find the causes of health outcomes

and diseases in populations” (cdc.gov, 2016). When I took Microbiology in Summer 2020, a

common theme that I had noticed was that we had studied many transmissible and self-

replicating diseases throughout the course. Then, while taking epidemiology, we studied how

those transmissible and self-replicating diseases can affect specific populations. For example, in

my microbiology course I remember that we spent a lot of time studying the illness Escherichia
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coli, which is also commonly referred to as E-Coli. This is an illness with tiny bacteria particles

that can be found in foods and in the intestines of humans and animals. We did not study this

disease as thoroughly in Epidemiology; however, it can relate to this course because there are

certain populations that this illness spikes in. In my opinion, knowing how an illness spreads

goes hand in hand with the effects seen on populations. I believe my prior knowledge from

taking microbiology has really helped me be able to fully grasp some of the concepts covered

during this course. Overall, I had little to no knowledge regarding Epidemiology prior to this

course. I always thought it was about epidemics or the study of other serious illnesses. In a way

I was correct, but I have learned that this course really dives in and studies how these diseases

can affect certain populations over a period of time.

When we started talking about social determinants of health, I did not fully understand

what the terms of that phrase meant. However, as we continually discussed and researched

more about social determinants, I realized that we are constantly surrounded by these

influences. Social determinants are defined as “the conditions in the environments where

people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health,

functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks” (health.gov). There are so many factors that

go into how we live and how our choices can affect our overall wellbeing. Some examples I

found while doing research were safe homes to live in, education and job opportunities, access

to nutritious food, any type of discrimination, and many other factors. A few days ago, I was

watching a show on Netflix with my roommate called Are You The One. The show is about

people finding their true matches. There was a girl of African American decent that was talking
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to a Caucasian male. While they were conversating he was being slightly rude to her because of

where she came from so, she said to the guy, “I have been observing and using sight

reconnaissance in order to analyze and gather information as to why I was being treated

poorly” (Are You The One, 2014). This is an example of social determinants of health having an

impact on someone’s life. The contestant was in an uncomfortable social setting and used

scientific jargon in order to describe to the other person how she was observing him and others

in order to come to a conclusion about the situation.

Since I started taking Epidemiology, I always find myself talking to my family and friends

about how the information in this course can be used to really dissect how a person’s

environment can truly make an impact on their life. An example of how social determinants can

affect someone from an outside perspective is about one of my closest friends. She had just

moved into an apartment with one of her best friends to a complex that was affordable, within

10 minutes to the beach, and close enough to their jobs. Over the next few months that they

lived in their new apartment, each time I would hangout with the two people I noticed that

they were getting colds more frequently, both girls would look so exhausted, and they even said

their schoolwork was starting to become affected too. When I asked my friends, what was

going on they said that within their apartment complex there was a shooting and several break

ins. As my friends went into detail about their exhaustion, I started to think about the social

determinants of health and how this is another prime example. If one does not have safe

housing or a comfortable setting to reside in, their overall health can quickly diminish as well as

other aspects in their lives.

As I think about where I started in this course during the Covid-19 pandemic, I can say

that I have grown in several aspects. One of those aspects being online school. I have never

really been a fan of taking classes online because I feel that I do not learn as much, I do not get

to bond with my professors, and I just simply feel unmotivated to do any school. I honestly feel

stronger about the fact that I am not learning as much as I would in an on-campus, face-to-face

class. It just does not help me in any way, shape, or form to be completely online. I already

struggle with some learning disabilities and a pandemic forcing classes to be completely online

did not help either. I am the type of person that thoroughly enjoys conversations with my

professors or getting that one-on-one time because I get feedback and it helps me find a good

balance on how to approach certain topics or feel that I am able to reach out if I am in need of

any extra assistance. Being completely online makes that all very difficult for me because it

feels so strange and not organic at all. I believe that if this class was on-campus this semester I

would have excelled and finished with a better grade than a ‘C’.

One of my favorite aspects of this class is being able to learn new information and how

it relates to our community, nation, or the world because then I am able to have open

discussions with others. My friends constantly say that they like when I talk about how

epidemiology or public health courses relate to college-age students because it makes them

think about situations differently. When I first started talking about this course with my friends

and family, they thought it a course about the study of skin. Many people are not familiar with

how our society is affected by communicable diseases, social determinants of health, diseases

prevalence, etc. This is simply due to the lack of education or misinformation.

This course has given me a lot to think about in terms of the big picture. I feel like I am

more well-rounded in knowledge about how we, as a community, can come together to help

stop the spread of this worldwide pandemic, Covid-19. I learned about many types of statistics

from all age groups and genders. Specifically, I remember one of our first lectures when

Professor Lukens Bull showed class different statistics about risky adolescent and young adult

behaviors in Jacksonville, Florida over the course of a few years. One that I explicitly

remembered was the rate of pregnancy for girls aged 15-19 years old. I remember that the rate

of pregnancy for this age group was much lower than I was expecting. I was mostly shocked

because I know that when there are certain areas that are slightly impoverished or do not show

a significant level of high school graduation rates, there tends to be more teenage pregnancies.

There could be many possible reasons why, but most of the time teenagers are not as educated

about sex or what types of contraception are out there in impoverished areas. According to

flhealthcharts.com, in 2019 there were 647 births to mothers aged 15-19 years old.

I have learned a lot in this course, but something that this course taught me is how to

take a group of data or facts, and how I talk about this in correlation to my life and those

around me. This is always something I have struggled with; however, the way our class was

taught and how we were suggested to look at the information given was eye opening for me. I

thoroughly enjoyed this class besides the current situation our world is in. I am excited to take

more public health classes given the skills and information that I now have. I feel that I have

come a long way not only in Epidemiology, but as a student since the start of this semester. I

have learned better time management skills. Not only time management, but this semester

taught me that it is okay to ask or reach out for help.

References

Are You the One? (2014, January 21). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3484274/

Kaslow, R. A., & Moser, S. A. (2000). Epidemiologic Review. Role of Microbiology in

Florida Health Charts by County. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from
http://www.flhealthcharts.com/charts/DataViewer/BirthViewer/BirthViewer.aspx?
cid=0001

Social Determinants of Health. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from

What is Epidemiology? (2016, June 17). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from
https://www.cdc.gov/careerpaths/k12teacherroadmap/epidemiology.html