My Take: Conversations from the Field - What Does Making a Difference Look Like?

By Lisa Unti, MPH | November 20, 2013

Have you ever wondered if the work you do makes a difference? Beyond the paperwork and meetings, the mandates and requirements… What does making a difference look like?

 

Many of us have multiple roles as parents, mentors and health and education professionals. My own perspective as a mother and researcher working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and evaluation for over 20 years informs and shapes my work. The intersection of these multiple roles gives all of us extraordinary opportunities to make a difference. Here’s one that came to me recently.

"Scare us with the details!"

During our car ride home from school, my teen daughter and her friends started talking about sex and condoms. “Yeah,” my daughter confided, “my mom’s always talking to my sister and me about condoms and stuff.”

The two other girls looked at me and said, “Oh, tell us! Scare us with the details!”

I was taken aback by their request to “scare them.” What frightening things could they be imagining about condoms, sexual health and responsibility?

I also realized that I had a “teachable moment” before me, along with a captive audience. I didn’t want to frighten them. I wanted to empower them with information as a means to make better choices about protecting their health.

"OK. Let's talk."

So we talked about condom use. We discussed the ways that condoms not only protect against STIs and unintended pregnancy, but also protect their reproductive organs from diseases that could cause long-term damage. They had no idea that an asymptomatic STI could affect their fertility and reproductive health in the future.

The girls were completely engaged throughout this conversation. Afterward, they thanked me and said that no one had ever presented the information to them this way. All they recalled from health class were tales of gross diseases, the “terrible” risks of pregnancy and warnings not to “do it.”

It's a Classic

What a classic conversation about sexual and reproductive health! But even for those of us who work in the field, connecting with youth outside of our work to talk about these topics can be awkward. How often have we held back from a teachable moment for fear of overstepping boundaries? (I did call the girls’ parents after I got home to tell them about the conversation, and was reassured to find them supportive and happy to hear the talk took place.)

I think most colleagues agree that sexual and reproductive health information should be age appropriate, medically accurate, comprehensive, skills-based and continue across the life span. The more prepared we are to translate our knowledge and experience in conversations with others, the easier it becomes. We tell teens they need to roleplay healthy partner communication to be prepared when the moment arises. As parents and educators, we, too, need to be prepared to respond and communicate in these teachable moments.

Continuous Quality Improvement in Everyday Life

My conversation with the girls made me think about applying principles of continuous quality improvement not just to my work, but to my everyday life.

I’m always looking for that feedback loop to identify ways to improve whatever I’m doing. Clearly, teaching and learning about sexual and reproductive health can be framed as a lifelong process, with continuous opportunities to improve the quality and meaning of our conversations.

I believe both single and repeated experiences can shape the “truths” of our lives and shed light on the “scares.” These experiences can motivate us as educators, health professionals and researchers to provide accessible information and empower healthy behavior. So go ahead—make a difference! Watch for moments to make a connection and share some of that empowering information you’re lucky enough to know.

 

This spontaneous conversation with my daughter and her friends sparked many more conversations with colleagues. I’m not at all surprised to learn that so many of us think about this issue a lot—the relationship of the personal, the professional, and the practice of health education and research. I would particularly like to acknowledge BA Laris, who helped sharpen my focus for this story.

Lisa Unti, MPH, is a research associate at ETR. She has extensive experience coordinating program and evaluation activities in a variety of settings, with a focus on developing evaluation tools for continuous program improvement, providing evaluation technical assistance and capacity building, and designing other quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation tools on a wide range of ETR projects. You can reach her at lisau@etr.org.