In this episode we chat with Nang’andu, a health promotion specialist from Zambia about her 11 year career in public health.
We discussed:
- How Nana started her career in public health and what motivated her to focus on health in development
- Secondary prevention in Cervical cancer
- All things Cervical cancer
- What work she currently does and what that looks like on a typical day/week
- Monitoring and Evaluation in public health programs
- It's not just M&E
- Nana’s multi year experience and the different amazing work and areas she has worked in
- Digitalization of M&E and how Nana has taken it in stride
- What digital applications and platforms Nana uses in her work
- How her role requires her to be flexible, adaptable and translate between different kinds of experts
- How she has continued to learn new skills and dedicated time to that to keep up to date with the work
- The importance of prioritizing the population as a receiver of information and evidence generated in public health work
- Data for decision making - Decisions in health begin at the individual’s health
- Beyond data collection and M&E in public health work
- Data as an empowerment tool for people
- Nana’s definition of public health and what it means and looks like for her
- There is so much work to do!
- Frustrations and challenges working in public health
- What is Nana’s favourite thing about working in public health
- What keeps Nana working in public health?
- Public Health saves lives
- Skills that Nana has found useful in public health
- Top things that Nana recommends investing in while working in public health
- The value of relationships in public health work
- What she does when she feels demotivated in her work or in a slump
- The value of humanities and social sciences in public health with examples from a reproductive health program that Nana worked in
- The value of innovation in public health
- Who are we doing public health work for?
- Public health interventions need to be inclusive and not discriminatory
- Tips and words of wisdom to young people
- Challenges in career guidance and learning how to explore
- Visible women Zambia and mentorship for young women and girls