Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

1) What is your essential question?  What is the best answer to your question and why?

• My essential question is "What is the best way to promote STD prevention in youth." The best answer to my essential question is that "It is best to start informing youth from an early age about the consequences of being sexually active." This is the best answer to my EQ because according to an articleResearch Facts and Findings more than seven percent of youth have had sexual intercourse before the age of thirteen. This research is very significant because, it means that there is a very young population engaging in sexual intercourse and they are at risk of contracting an STD. All youth need to be informed about the consequences of being sexually active before the age of thirteen, this includes informing them about STDs. Also it is very important to educate youth before they reach the age of fifteen, because youth ages 15-24 have the highest STD rates. This is according to Effective HIV and STD Prevention Programs for Youth. 

2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• The process that I took to arrive at this answer is that I started volunteering at my mentorship. Throughout  the entire time there, I observed many teens go into the Family Practice where I volunteer. Many of them were going into the office to be tested for an STD. The teens going in for these tests looked very young, and when I asked the medical assistant she informed me that most of them were no older than sixteen. This then made me gain an interest in learning about STDs in youth. I later researched STDs and found that they are most prevalent in youth ages 15-24. Even though they only make up twenty five percent of the sexually active population. Throughout my entire research I kept on encountering this fact, which made realize that it is very important to inform them about STDs before the age of fifteen. I then went to my mentor and asked talked to her about the facts I had found, she informed me that girls can go into the doctors office at the age of twelve and ask for birth control, and on a daily basis she gives young girls birth control. Thus this all lead me to me answer, "It is best to start informing youth from an early age about the consequences of being sexually active." 

3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• The first problem that I faced was that my topic of family medicine was to broad, there were to many different topics within it. I had no idea what I wanted to focus on, so I resolved the problem by going to my mentor Physician Assistant Emma. I informed her about the problem I faced and she talked to me about the different topics that were with in the Family Practice topic. She informed me that the two topics I might be interested in were disease promotion and disease prevention. 
• The second problem that I encountered was that I could not find different research in regards to programs being implemented into schools. I had only found research in regards to programs being implemented, but I could not find the programs actual name. I resolved this by going on the Center for Disease Control website and looking up programs. This then lead me to find a few programs that were implemented into schools and that were successful. 

4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• The first most significant source is Effective HIV and STD Prevention Programs for Youth, because it gave me information in regards to successful STD programs for youth.
• The second program I that  helped me answer mt essential question was an article called Research Facts and Findings. That article helped me because it gave me shocking facts in regards to statistics on STD rates. 

5) What is your product and why?

• My product is that I gained communication skills, because I had to communicate with many of the office employes on a daily basis. I had to communicate with them to ask them questions about the work i was doing for that day or if I needed help with my senior project. They were all willing to help me with anything I needed.