When Jennifer Davids graduated in 2019 with her bachelor’s degree in public health, she started work promoting a health screening program. Although she loved the people she was helping, she didn’t really feel fulfilled.

What she wanted, she realized, was a boots-on-the-ground job in health care, fighting disease and infection.

Choosing infection control

“Growing up, my dad was an EMT who eventually became an EMS chief,” Davids said. “I would go on emergency medical calls with him and assist with some of the courses he taught. The medical field and community felt like my extended family, and I missed that. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and I had a lot more time to reflect on what I truly wanted to do with my public health degree, I thought about the classes I took in undergrad that impacted me the most. I realized that I love communicable diseases, understanding how they spread, how they impact the body and figuring out ways to help break the chain of infection to stop and slow the spread of disease.”

Choosing the COPH

Davids researched MPH programs in infection control and settled on the USF College of Public Health. She’s currently concentrating in infection control and working on a certificate in the epidemiology of infectious diseases.

“I am a military spouse, so I wanted to ensure I had a program that would be as portable as I have to be,” Davids noted. “The program being offered completely online was a huge bonus because I knew no matter where the Air Force would send us, I would still be able to accomplish my goals. Another huge part of choosing this program was the opportunity to not only be a part of the amazing infection control concentration (which is very rare to find) but also to do the epidemiology of infectious diseases certificate. Infection control requires a lot of data manipulation and analysis for a successful program, so I wanted to ensure I got more exposure and expertise in data collection, management and analysis.”  

Although she’s still completing the MPH program, today Davids works as an infection preventionist (IP) with Madigan Army Medical Center, a large military hospital in Washington State with more than 200 beds, a pediatric intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit and busy operating room.

Some of her responsibilities include helping to determine if a patient’s infection was acquired in the hospital or elsewhere, ensuring compliance with internal policies and regulatory standards and evaluating the use of transmission-based precautions for inpatients.

Davids says she started her job right about the time she started the infection control MPH program. “What I learned in just those first few weeks really helped me be more successful starting out as an IP,” Davids said. “That knowledge has only grown and progressed as I have completed the other courses that are really built to help you learn how to implement an infection control program.”

“There’s always something new to learn!”

Davids says she loves the breadth of infection control and the support she gets at the COPH.

“Even with the program being online, I’ve felt an immense amount of support from the faculty,” she said. “They’re always happy to answer questions and provide feedback. Infection control overlaps so many other areas of public health, such as occupational health in implementing a blood-borne pathogen exposure protocol or understanding facility management when advising on a construction project within a healthcare facility, that it’s nearly impossible to get bored. There’s always something new to learn!” 

Future goals

While Davids says she’s happy working as an IP, her ultimate goal is to become director of an infection control program at a large cancer hospital.

“I’ve always been humbled by the vastness of cancer’s effects on the body, and I’m passionate about how to keep those patients as safe as possible while their body works incredibly hard to battle the disease,” Davids commented.

Davids expects to earn her MPH in Fall 2023.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health