Visitor Injury Data Collection Intern

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Please include position ID #: po-00126973

Visitor Injury Data Collection Intern: .

Rock Creek Park is an urban park with nearly 3,000 acres of land and 1,883,405 recreational visits in 2010. many of these visitors come to play tennis, soccer, picnic, hike, bike, roller blade, fish, horseback ride, listen to a concert, or attend interpretive programs with a park ranger. A large number of these visitors are using the park's multi-use trails.

The park's 9.8 miles of multi-use trail stretch from the Maryland border at Western Avenue south on Oregon Avenue to Bingham Drive, along Military Road to the vicinity of the Nature Center, and along Beach Drive and Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, ending at the Thompson Boat House along the Potomac River. The multi use trail system, which runs through a natural resource and scenic area, has become an integral part of a well-developed urban trail system in the DC metropolitan area. Visitors access the trail via multiple connections. The trail is used 7 days a week by bikers, walkers, and runners for exercise, training and daily commuting. Congestion on the trail poses a challenge to safe use by pedestrians and bicyclists.

The National Park Service is committed to reducing the number of unintentional injuries among our visitors. The purpose of this internship is to collect, input, and analyze visitor injury data in order to develop effective injury prevention strategies.

With support and guidance from park staff and the Public Risk Management Program (PRMP) staff at NPS Headquarters, the intern will:

1. Identify and review park visitor injury data sources.
2. Extract five years of retrospective data.
3. Enter data into the Visitor Injury Data System (VIDS) tool provided by PRMP. The VIDS tool captures the most critical injury data points for each incident and allows for accurate analyses that follow current industry standards.

In order to gain an understanding of the needs of the park as well as past, current, and/or planned visitor safety programs, the intern will also:

1. Explore the park.
2. Conduct interviews with staff from various divisions.
3. Review park safety plans and/or other visitor safety policies and guidelines.
4. Research and establish, in conjunction with NPS Denver Service Center and other NPS staff, a model for manual user data collection and analysis for all trail segments.
5. Research and propose locations for automatic trail counters on all trail segments.
6. Analyze visitor injury data from the United States Park Police and the NPS's Safety Management Information System to identify major safety issues and proposed corrective actions and injury prevention strategies.
7. Research and implement public outreach programs to provide visitors with trail safety information and to collect visitor input about trail safety.
8. Conduct trail safety analysis of existing conditions and make recommendations for critical interim improvements prior to upcoming trail reconstruction.
9. Research and propose grade crossing sign-age and marking improvements at P Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, K Street, Thompson Boat Center and Shoreham Drive. 1
10. Research and propose gate and trail marking and sign improvements at National Zoological Park trail fenced entrances adjacent to the National Zoo tunnel.

Upon completion of data extraction, the intern will work with PRMP staff to analyze collected data using a statistical software analysis program. Based on the data analyses, observations in the park and discussions with staff, at the end of the internship, the intern will produce a Power Point presentation highlighting findings and identifying possible risk factors for injury and suggested next steps.

The intern will attend an intensive, highly specialized, week-long training program held on June 3-8, 2012. The program will include didactic and active sessions on topics including overview of NPS, injury epidemiology, data collection, wilderness medical essentials, and risk communication.

Park orientation training will include the following topics: What to do in Case of Emergency, Heat Related Illness Prevention, Slip Trip and Fall Training, Hazard Communication, Personal Protection Equipment training, and Back Injury Prevention.

It also includes a one-day bike training at the George Washington Memorial Parkway, where the intern can obtain League of American Bicyclists certification in basic bike handling skills in an urban environment.

Required qulalifications:

• Interns must have excellent analytic skills, be highly organized, and be able to take initiative and work independently.
• They should have a basic understanding of and interest in injury epidemiology and public health.
• Interns should be proficient in Micro-soft Excel, Word, Access, and Power Point.

The intern must have:

• a valid drivers license;
• the ability and willingness to undergo a required criminal history background check;
• experience with statistical analysis data base management, and spread sheet;
• ability to evaluate current data collection methods and correct as needed to develop a regression estimator;
• practical experience in record keeping in field and office environments;
• good communication and people skills; ability to work with volunteers and the public;
• eagerness to work hard at moderately physically and socially demanding job, which may involve lifting 50 pounds for event set up, biking 10 miles or walking several miles per day, working in inclement weather (hot, humid, cold or wet), contacting visitors about safe use of trails, or sitting for long periods, attending to routine task.

Desired qualifications: Experience with a statistical software such as SAS and SPSS is a plus.

Housing Location: Washington DC

Position Code (PO): po-00126973

Organization: Government

Agency: National Park Service

State: Dist Of Columbia

Start Date: Mon, 06/11/2012
End Date: Fri, 08/31/2012

Apply Now.
Please include position ID #: po-00120331

This internship is part of the NPS Risk Management Internship Program.