At every turn, Autum Yarger's St. Ambrose University experience seemed to steer her toward work as a social worker.
Early in her Psychology studies, Yarger discovered the BA-to-Master of Social Work (MSW) pathway and was on her way toward that MSW degree before she began her senior year.
"I had a whole year of MSW studies done when I graduated in May 2019," Yarger said.
With another year of graduate school left, Yarger discovered an opportunity to pair her MSW – which she earned in 2020 – with a second SAU master's degree, a Master of Public Health. She collected that third SAU degree on May 21.
"I love social work and really found that to be my passion," she said. "And I was really drawn not only to clinical social work but also the macro, larger policy pieces and advocacy on a larger level."
Yarger began work after graduation as a medical social worker, advocating on behalf of families with babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Stead Family Children's Hospital at the University of Iowa. As a morale captain of Dance Marathon, an SAU student-led club that fundraises for the Children's Hospital, Yarger was already familiar with that environment.
"I knew I wanted to do health-care-related work as a medical social worker," Yarger said. "So, when I looked into the MPH program, it was focused on the population and community level, looking at health care systems and identifying the barriers and opportunities for advocacy. I thought this was perfect for what I really want to do with that bigger macro lens."
In every way, Autum's multi-leveled St. Ambrose education prepared her for the challenging yet important work she does each day at one of the top-ranked pediatric hospitals in the nation.
"I help support families, providing resources and emotional support and help them navigate the system," she said.
Her Psychology background clearly helps in terms of providing emotional support to families stressed by the trauma of having a newborn child in the NICU. The St. Ambrose MSW's focus on empowerment is "applicable to my job every single day," Autum said.
"I have also used a lot of my public health knowledge in the NICU. I have done training with trauma-informed care with nurses here and that is something I focused on in my MPH, MSW, and undergraduate studies. I really see the public health administration training working with families within the large health system we're in. Also, working with doctors, nurses and others in interprofessional teams, public health is very focused on that as well."
Yarger is the first SAU student to take advantage of the MSW-MPH dual degree opportunity, much as others have paired their MSW with a Master of Business Administration. A second MSW student with a future in healthcare social work currently is enrolled in the MPH program.
Yarger believes more will follow as the importance of public health administrative education to complement a variety of degrees becomes clearer as the pandemic wanes.
"We navigate for families so we really have to learn to help them walk through systems," she said, noting challenges as simple as lack of available parking for families with hospitalized children become systemic barriers.
"The challenges I see them face influenced me to want to look at the systems, look at policies, look at what we can do to ease barriers and stressors for families who want to get the right medical care and help their kiddos."
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