Sarah Jeffrey
Yellowknife,NT
Summary
Experienced in both public health and clinical care delivery with ability to lead teams and initiatives in epidemiology, surveillance and policy development, and data quality and improvement. Works well both independently and collaboratively to complete projects efficiently in environments with competing priorities. Comfortable communicating with a variety of stakeholders including senior leadership, health authorities and healthcare staff, Indigenous governments and organizations, and researchers.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Territorial Epidemiologist, Team Lead
Government of Northwest Territories
Yellowknife, NT
07.2022 - Current
- Oversee the Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit within the Population Health Division of the Department of Health and Social Services
- Provide direct supervision of staff epidemiologists and project officers within the unit
- Lead and manage epidemiology and surveillance projects, divisional and departmental workplan deliverables and ensure work priorities align with Departmental mandates and legislative priorities
- Intimate knowledge of relevant legislation and regulations that define work scope and authorities for health data collection and use, including the NWT Public Health Act and associated regulations, NWT Health Information Act
- Provide regular reporting and recommendations to senior leadership including the Chief Public Health Officer on unit projects and initiatives related to population health
- Experience producing reporting products in different formats for different audiences; e.g. briefing notes/decision papers, policy documents, dashboards, technical reports, presentations
- Define, research, and conduct epidemiological analyses related to public health questions/issues in order to identity patterns, and trends to provide recommendations / guidance to senior leaders on assigned projects, e.g. collecting and analysing laboratory data to inform program and policy decisions related to diagnostic testing options in remote community settings
- Plan, develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate territorial surveillance systems in multiple areas of population health (e.g. infectious and chronic diseases, immunization, antibiotic resistant organisms, cancer
- Regularly evaluate and lead improvement initiatives in data collection, data quality and management practices within the unit, including developing protocols for data pipelines and reporting practices, e.g. developed streamlined severe outcome reporting from hospital sites for respiratory illness
- Act as territorial representative on various national and surveillance network committees, including the Canadian Immunization Registries and Coverage Network, National Wastewater Surveillance Network, Canadian Chronic Disease Steering Committee, FluWatch etc.
- Complete federal surveillance reporting on behalf of NWT, e.g. COVID-19 reporting, national immunization surveillance reporting, notifiable disease reporting etc.
- Provide technical assistance in communicable disease investigations and outbreaks; work as part of outbreak response team as required
- Utilize various statistical and reporting tools to analyse and produce reporting products, e.g. proficient in R programing, RMarkdown, basic SQL, visual basic analysis (VBA), data analysis expressions (DAX) in PowerBI, Microsoft Suite tools
Public Health Officer
Public Health Agency of Canada
Yellowknife , NT
01.2020 - 07.2022
- Worked with the Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT) and Office of the Chief Public Health Officer on rollout of a latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) treatment program using Isoniazid and Rifapentine (3HP) regimen in a pilot community with goal to develop recommendations for Territorial wide rollout
- Prepared proposals and supporting rationales for funding requests related to procurement of resources for LTBI diagnosis and treatment, e.g. purchasing specimen incubators for remote communities
- Served as project lead with the Tuberculosis elimination project within GNWT and was point of contact with other project partners including the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority
- Examined territorial TB program policies and developed updated policy guidance and reference materials to support updates to treatment delivery and reporting guidelines
- Developed TB program indicators to evaluate current practices and support evaluation of program changes to aid the territorial program leadership decision-making
- Oversaw data quality improvements of the territorial Tuberculosis central registry to improve TB surveillance data to guide TB programming decisions and support front line health care workers in TB care
- Aided in developing healthcare provider resources and tools to support providers in delivering LTBI treatment in a pilot sites
- Aided in creation of COVID-19 resources for territorial front-line healthcare providers including case and contact management guidelines, public health management of COVID-19 territorial guidance documents, interim outbreak management documents for other territorial departments, e.g. co-wrote school COVID-19 policy guidance documents)
- Was a project co-lead with the Northwest Territories Health Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) to implement a novel digital cloud-based COVID-19 case management tool called Quicktrace utilized across the territory
- Developed training materials and trained healthcare staff (nurses, physicians, and support staff) to use Quicktrace and provided ongoing support to providers throughout pandemic response
Registered Nurse
Kingston Health Sciences Centre
Kingston, ON
08.2014 - 12.2019
- Staff nurse providing clinical care to nephrology and medical-surgical patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings
- Worked extensively as part of a multidisciplinary care team to coordinate care across agencies (from inpatient to community services) including long-term care coordination, Ontario disability support program (ODSP), exceptional access drug coverage
- Charge nurse duties as assigned, including managing patient loads, and supervising unit 15+ nursing staff on a busy outpatient and inpatient hemodialysis unit
- Advocate for patients to ensure appropriate care/services are provided to ensure patient safety and goals of care are maintained
- Counseled patients regarding medication side effects or lifestyle changes necessary for improved health outcomes, e.g. worked largely with end-stage renal patients with multi-morbidities and high-health care needs
- Assessed, planned, implemented and evaluated nursing care for assigned patients.
- Ensured compliance with standards of nursing professional practice in Ontario
- Worked very closely with a variety of health care providers including physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, dietitians, chaplains to coordinate and deliver individualized treatment plans for each patient
MPH Practicum
Department of National Defence
Ottawa, ON
05.2019 - 08.2019
- Created and was project lead for a formal public health surveillance system evaluation of the DND deployment health surveillance system within the Directorate of Force Health Protection (DFHP)
- Worked as part of an evaluation team to develop an evaluation plan, including identifying key system attributes for assessment and their performance indicators, a stakeholder engagement plan, survey methods and materials including questionnaire design, and data dissemination plan
- Performed extensive key stakeholder interviews
- Performed qualitative and quantitative (descriptive) data analysis utilizing epidemiological tools including R and NVivo
- Produced an evaluation report with recommendations to aid Department of National Defence senior leadership decision making for future planning of deployment health surveillance
Education
Master of Public Health -
Queen's University
Kingston09-2019
Bachelor of Nursing - Bachelor of Nursing
University of New Brunswick- Humber
Toronto, ON05-2014
Bachelor of Science - Human Kinetics
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC05-2009
Skills
- Attention to Detail
- Communication with senior leadership
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Report Writing
- Reporting abilities
- Relationship Building
- Analytical Skills
- Interpersonal Communication
Certification
- Registered Nurse, Ontario College of Nurses (non-practicing currently)
Timeline
Territorial Epidemiologist, Team Lead
Government of Northwest Territories
07.2022 - Current
Public Health Officer
Public Health Agency of Canada
01.2020 - 07.2022
MPH Practicum
Department of National Defence
05.2019 - 08.2019
Registered Nurse
Kingston Health Sciences Centre
08.2014 - 12.2019
Master of Public Health -
Queen's University
Bachelor of Nursing - Bachelor of Nursing
University of New Brunswick- Humber
Bachelor of Science - Human Kinetics
University of British Columbia
- Registered Nurse, Ontario College of Nurses (non-practicing currently)
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