Through our partnerships, the OSB team gets the opportunity to meet inspiring people with unique backgrounds that have led to impactful and interesting careers. In this blog, we highlight Christine Doyle Opela, RN, MPH whose career as a nurse led her to complete a Masters of Public Health at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
We met Opela in the summer of 2021 when she participated in the Rollins Innovation Summit, an event by OSB, Double Lantern Informatics, and Rollins School of Public Health that united public health professionals with students to use the innovation process to design pilots for real industry problems. At the summit, she was paired with The Georgia Affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in designing a pilot intervention to reduce maternal mortality. She ended up continuing her work with the group for her practicum.
In May 2022, Christine was awarded the Outstanding Applied Practice Experience Award for her work at the Rollins Innovation Summit. It might seem that her pivot from nursing to public health was natural. Opela would say that her journey to public health was anything but conventional.
OPELA’S STORY
As a nurse, Opela has worked in adult critical care, neonatal intensive care, and high-risk ambulance transport, and has always been attracted to serving “very sick, critical care populations.” However, after about 25 years in the industry, she felt unsure about her career.
“[Nursing is] a noble career, it's a good career. And I, by all measures, was successful, but it never quite felt right,” Opela said.
In the search for her new career path, Opela left the hospital and was hired by the local health department as a school nurse, which exposed her to the field of public health. In the role, she was able to provide quality care beyond the confines of insurance plans and hospital protocol. She thought it would be an easy job that would hold her over during this transitional period in her life.
“There were two revelations that became apparent to me very quickly. Number one, school health was hands down the hardest nursing job I've ever held. And number two, public health was exactly what I was meant to do.”
Quick, creative problem solving became Opela’s back-pocket tool when navigating her school nurse responsibilities. At a moment's notice, a student could have an asthma attack or break a bone. Without the resources of a hospital, she had to find innovative responses to challenging situations.
Through working in school health, Opela found an appreciation for solving the root cause of a problem to create positive health outcomes. She fell in love with public health when she realized considering all the factors that affect people’s health, called the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). Without taking such factors into consideration “is like having a festering wound and slapping a Band-Aid on it,” according to Opela.
Eventually, she left school health and started her Masters of Public Health at Emory University to pursue a career in public health program management and leadership. Having been out of school for over 20 years, she struggled a lot her first semester but preserved. She was not going to quit or tell herself that she was too old.
A determined spirit combined with an understanding of holistic health led Opela to her practicum experience which shapes how we know her today. She worked on piloting an intervention to get care bundle protocols for Certified Nurse Midwives in local clinics. These care bundles consisted of a collection of practices proven to reduce the negative birthing outcomes of pregnant people.
“We see terrible disparities in birthing outcomes among people in Georgia, particularly women of color. And so we have this care model-care bundles, which have been shown to improve patient outcomes, but we don't know how to get it out there. We put together a pilot and a pitch deck. After two weeks the nurse-midwives were able to take it back and pitch this pilot to the professional organization to see what people thought of their care bundle.”
For Opela, this is just the beginning of her new career in public health. She recently graduated from Emory in July 2022. Ultimately her goal is to expand her influence and explore various sectors in the public health space.
Opela’s story is proof of many things. It is a testament to the power of enthusiasm, determination, and willingness to take risks. We support all that Opela is doing to create a more equitable world, where people see better health outcomes in their communities. If you want to keep up with Opela and all that she is working on, be sure to follow her on LinkedIn!
Writing and illustration by Nia-Simone Eccleston, Design Strategist Apprentice.
