Health Literacy and Equity InternAt — Institute for Healthcare Advancement / La Habra Family Resource Center

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) seeks a Health Literacy and Equity intern to support a collaborative grant to improve organizational health literacy among 4 large public health and social service organizations in Orange County. The grant aims to build the capacity within each of these organizations to better meet the health literacy needs of all residents through health literacy training of employees, co-design of communication products with residents, and embedded health literacy principles throughout all operations.

About IHA

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) is a nonprofit, 501 (c)(3) healthcare public benefit charity, with the mission of advancing health literacy as a pathway to health equity. IHA believes that all individuals have the right to high quality health care and health information that is easy to read, understand, and act upon. IHA has a small office in Anaheim, CA, but since the COVID-19 pandemic most of the team work remotely.  

To fulfill our mission, we:

• Offer a Health Literacy Certificate Program hosted on a Learning Management System that is accredited by the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE);
• Publish easy-to-read, easy-to-use What to Do for Health book series in multiple languages;
• Host and manage a national annual health literacy conference;
• Publish the peer-reviewed, open access health literacy journal: HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice;
• Provide health literacy communication consulting services including, document assessment, revision, and redesign;
• Conduct and sponsor health literacy research to advance the rigor of the science and discovery of evidence; and
• Sponsor the Health Literacy Solutions Center with over 14,000 active participants on the discussion list from around the world!

Description of Tasks

The Health Literacy and Equity Intern will participate as a member of the collaborative implementation grant. A description of tasks include:
1. Attend partner and resident meetings and observe dynamics of each.
2. Assist with resolving challenges of collaborative work with differing organization needs and timelines.
3. Assist partner and residents with the co-design of a communication product.
4. Conduct simple data analysis, e.g., Organizational Health Literacy Survey, site visit results, and health communication assessment.
5. Assist with grant reporting to the United Way and Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
6. Participate in growth opportunities in health literacy and equity, e.g., October Health Literacy in Action Conference.

Training:

Student interns will receive the following training, ongoing guidance, and education:

1. New employee/intern general orientation, e.g., mission, culture, and policies.
2. Introduction to Health literacy training, e.g., personal health literacy, organizational health literacy, and health equity.
3. Overview of the project, e.g., Equity in Orange County initiative, Health Literacy for Equity grant, and other background information
4. Overview of internship responsibilities
5. Weekly meetings with grant managers
6. Job shadowing, e.g., meetings with grant and community partners, skill building workshops, and other virtual and live meetings.

Learning Outcome:

Upon completion of the internship, students will be able to:

1. Conduct simple analyses and assist with grant reporting.
2. State the co-design principles and practices for developing a communication product with partner organizations and residents.
3. Describe the impact health literacy has on health outcomes.
4. Utilize strategies to effectively collaborate with differing organizations