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Selected Topics - Health Disciplines and Education
 The WWW Virtual Library: Public Health
Categories
Global policies and related documents
Reports, guidelines and projects
- A Model of Dental Public Health Teaching at the Undergraduate Level in Peru
There has been a growing interest among dental educators regarding the opportunities offered by community-based dental education as a means to allow dental students to assume their role as health professionals in the real world. Although several dental schools have integrated community-based education into their curricula, most have not engaged their students in the development of competencies to address dental health needs at the community level. The purpose of this article is to discuss the teaching-learning experiences in dental public health at the undergraduate level in the Faculty of Stomatology at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (FS-UPCH) in Lima, Peru. The teaching-learning activities in dental public health at the FS-UPCH consist of two well-defined stages: experiences in low-income urban communities and experiences in low-income rural communities. Both stages have been designed to make it possible for students to acquire competency in addressing oral health needs at the community level as well as to enlarge and deepen their knowledge about the social and health situation in Peru. In community-based dental education, students are not only placed in community settings to treat individual patients, but also challenged to consider dental public health issues, including the administrative aspects of dental services. [author abstract] [Journal of Dental Education, Vol. 70, No. 8, pp.875-883, August 2006]
- A Snapshot of Medical Student Education in the United States and Canada: Reports from 128 Schools
According to Steven L. Kanter, who wrote the forward in this collection of articles, “this collection of reports has value for both contemporary readers and future historians. First, the reports are structured to facilitate comparison between the medical student education programs described in the present collection and those described in the 2000 collection, and also to compare the current programs with one another. Second, both this collection and the one published in 2000 are comprehensive. They include reports from almost every accredited medical education program leading to the MD degree in the United States and Canada. Third, the reports offer an important picture of advances, innovations, and initiatives in these medical student education programs that can help contemporary readers understand the status of medical student education today, and that can help current and future historians gauge progress over the last decade and century. Fourth, the reports reveal important similarities and differences among medical student education programs. For example, some schools have specially-designed experiences in research (often called “scholarly concentrations”), while other schools offer students key clinical experiences in rural settings. Some schools have traditional clerkships, while others have longitudinal ones. Several schools have added buildings devoted to medical student education, and many have integrated ethics into the curriculum as a required component. Many schools are expanding their educational programs to additional campuses, and new medical schools are establishing their own innovative educational programs. This set of reports provides ready access to this information. Fifth, the reports include information on the governance and management structure of educational programs, which situates the curriculum within the context of a school and provides key insights about how decisions are made.” [Academic Medicine, Vol. 85, Iss. 9, p.S1-S648 (September 2010)]
- Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics in Ecuador: Teaching the Teachers
The advanced life support in obstetrics (ALSO) course is designed to help maternity care providers prepare for obstetrical emergencies. A team of 12 US physicians and a medical interpreter recently taught the ALSO course in Ecuador, with the goal of addressing Ecuador’s high maternal and infant mortality rates. To have a greater impact, a teach-the-teacher model was used so that Ecuadorian physicians can now hold their own ALSO courses. In the process of implementing the courses, valuable lessons were learned which can be applied to future ALSO courses in developing countries and in the United States. [publication abstract] [J Am Board Fam Pract 2004; 17: 276–82]
- Education in and the Practice of Dental Public Health in Bulgaria, Finland, and the United Kingdom
The aim of this review paper is to describe and compare specialist education in and practice of dental public health (DPH) in Bulgaria, Finland, and the United Kingdom (UK). These countries are the only three member states of the European Union in which the specialty is officially recognised. In each country, DPH is included in the undergraduate curriculum. Postgraduate specialist education is provided at universities and lasts for three years in Bulgaria and Finland and four years in UK. The training programmes in DPH are a mixture of academic and practical training. The academic studies cover oral health needs and demands assessment, use of information technology, commissioning and evaluating oral health services, promoting oral health and research, together with other related areas. The practice of DPH includes: leadership and management of health organisations, teaching, training, research, advising and evaluating. This paper discusses the rationale for a specialty of DPH at a time of changing oral health need and give examples of problems that have arisen when such advice has not been sought or has been ignored. [author abstract] [OHDMBSC, Vol. VIII, No. 2, pp. 30-37 - June 2009]
- Global health diplomacy: training across disciplines
“…The interface between trade and health is on the cutting edge of global health diplomacy, write Ilona Kickbusch et al. in a perspective. Foreign policy is now being driven substantially by health to protect national security, free trade and economic advancement, they say. But this exciting new field of study requires conceptual development and practical training programmes….Some governments have taken purposeful strides to incorporate health as a foreign policy tool. Perhaps, however, it is the other way around: foreign policy is now being driven substantially by health to protect national security, free trade and economic advancement. We offer a few examples of this changing field of health and foreign policy as background to our academic response: The United Kingdom is attempting to establish policy coherence with the development of a central governmental global health strategy based on health as a human right and global public good. Rooted in the recognition of globalization and its effects on health, this new effort will bring together the United Kingdom’s foreign relations, international development, trade and investment policies that can affect global health…”. (au)
- Health professionals for a new century: Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world
"Glaring gaps and inequities in health persist both within and between countries, underscoring our collective failure to share the dramatic health advances equitably. At the same time, fresh health challenges loom. New infectious, environmental, and behavioural risks, at a time of rapid demographic and epidemiological transitions, threaten health security of all. Health systems worldwide are struggling to keep up, as they become more complex and costly, placing additional demands on health workers. Professional education has not kept pace with these challenges, largely because of fragmented, outdated, and static curricula that produce ill-equipped graduates. The problems are systemic mismatch of competencies to patient and population needs; poor teamwork; persistent gender stratification of professional status; narrow technical focus without broader contextual understanding; episodic encounters rather than continuous care; predominant hospital orientation at the expense of primary care; quantitative and qualitative imbalances in the professional labour market; and weak leadership to improve health-system performance. Laudable efforts to address these deficiencies have mostly floundered, partly because of the so-called tribalism of the professions—ie, the tendency of the various professions to act in isolation from or even in competition with each other. Redesign of professional health education is necessary and timely, in view of the opportunities for mutual learning and joint solutions offered by global interdependence due to acceleration of flows of knowledge, technologies, and financing across borders, and the migration of both professionals and patients." [The Lancet, vol 376; pp 1923–58, 4 Dec, 2010]
- HIV and AIDS Treatment Education: A Critical Component of Efforts to Ensure Universal Access to Prevention, Treatment and Care
This paper explores some of the main issues contained within the definition of treatment education, signalling ways that the education sector can play a role along with others engaged in efforts to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, and care. The paper considers some key strategies, including how to effectively engage and prepare communities and how to involve key constituencies and in particular people with HIV and those on treatment."
- Modernizing Medical Education: Perspective from a Developing Country
"One of the main objectives of this paper is to stimulate dialogue and debate amongst academics on ways in which the standard of medical education can be raised. Furthermore, this paper should prove useful to members of the various committees in charge of preparing their schools in developing countries for accreditation." [West Indian Med J 2007; 56 (1): 80-85]
- Public Health Workforce in Latin America and the Caribbean: assessment of education and labor in 17 countries
"Health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced a series of reforms since the 1990s as a result of the identification of problems with populations accessing services, scarce resources available to finance health, inequality in access to available resources, and issues concerning efficiency and quality of services. The reforms led to a redefining of the model of care from one that had focused resources on the production of personal services in the clinical environment to those that facilitate health promotion and risk prevention. These reforms have opened the door to a greater utilization of new public health models that address the challenges created by the epidemiological transition, the aging of the population, and the increase in service production costs... Their implementation requires, among other factors, a great deal of political commitment by key actors (including health ministries, social security institutions and professional associations), technically capable institutional leadership, and a well-informed civil society. Health personnel is fundamental to this process. Human resources in the sector play an active change role, as their functions as educators, trainers, and counselors are determining factors for the successful development of such models. In various countries, the transformations generated in the public health field have directly determined the need for highly qualified human resources to promote the implementation of models based on public health principles. It has therefore been necessary not only to revise the curricula currently in place at academic institutions but also to seek educational formats that enable the training of public health human capital to be broadened to better respond to the growing demand for these resources. In addition, once human resources are trained, it is important to guarantee their integration into the workforce, since it is in this environment that the knowledge and skills acquired in training become actions. Public health personnel, therefore, must not only carry out technical tasks but also possess the ability to lead processes." [Salud Pública de México, vol. 51, no. 1, pp.62-75, Jan-Feb 2009]
- Strengthening Midwifery Toolkit
There have been serious efforts over the past several decades to review effective interventions for improving pregnancy and childbirth outcomes. A clear consensus has emerged from these analyse that providing skilled care at every birth is an essential component of interventions to reduce maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Without availability of a health provider with specific midwifery skills and competencies, particularly lifesaving skills, international goals for maternal and newborn health cannot be reached. This toolkit focuses specifically on strengthening the central role and function of the professional midwife in the provision of quality care during pregnancy and childbirth and in other reproductive and sexual health services. It includes 9 modules: Module 1 - A background paper; Module 2 - Legislation and regulation of midwifery - making safe motherhood possible; Module 3 - Developing standards to improve midwifery practice; Module 4 - Competencies for midwifery practice; Module 5 - Developing a midwifery curriculum for safe motherhood: Guidelines for midwifery education programmes; Module 6 - Developing effective programs for preparing midwife teachers; Module 7 - Developing standards to improve midwifery practice; Module 8 - Monitoring and assessment of continued competency for midwifery practice; Module 9 - Developing midwifery capacity for the promotion of maternal and newborn health; and Annex 1 - A model curriculum for midwifery education and practice. [WHO, 2011]
Educational resources
- All Nurses.com
An extensive database of links to nursing resources on the World Wide Web
- AVERT
Based in UK, AVERT provides resources on sex education with a special focus on the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS
- Directory of training programs in health research health policy
The Directory of Training Programs in Health Services Research and Health Policy provides key information about U.S. and international post-baccalaureate certificate, master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral programs in the fields of health services research and health policy.
- Epidemiologic Case Studies
"These case studies are interactive exercises developed to teach epidemiologic principles and practices. They are based on real-life outbreaks and public health problems and were developed in collaboration with the original investigators and experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The case studies require students to apply their epidemiologic knowledge and skills to problems confronted by public health practitioners at the local, state, and national level every day..."
- Go Ask Alice! Home Page
Columbia University (New York), health Questions and Answers for students
- Martindales: The 'Virtual' Nursing Center
This site provides links to a wide range of general, educational, procedural and clinical nursing links
- NMAP - Internet resources for Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professions
NMAP is a catalogue of evaluated Internet resources in Nursing, Midwifery and the Allied Health Professions aimed at students, researchers, academics and professionals. New resources are added weekly.
- Nurse Practitioner Central
"NP central provides a convenient source for readily available information by clinically practicing nurse practitioners."
- Nursing Portal
A comprehensive meta-site, organised as a searchable database offering access to international nursing resources
- Pacific Open Learning Health Net
The Pacific Open Learning Health Net programme was established to enable access to continuing education and professional development for health care workers in Pacific Island Countries, particularly those working in rural and remote areas. The programme has established computer laboratories as resource centres for health professionals in ten countries and has begun piloting distance education courses to facilitate learning.
- Specialty Nursing
This site contains numerous links to specialty nursing related sites
- Virtual Campus of Public Health
The Virtual Campus of Public Health is a consortium of institutions led by PAHO/WHO, in collaboration with academic institutions and development agencies of Europe and America, recognized for their leadership. The Campus' objective is "to contribute to the development and improvement of the efficiency of Public Health management through the resolution of cases closely related with professional practice, as well as to promote the exchange of experiences among professionals ..."
- Women and Health Learning Package
This package consists of a series of training modules on topics ranging from violence against women and contraceptive practices to adolescent health and unwanted pregnancy/unsafe abortion. These women’s health modules, along with others still in development, make up the Women and Health Learning Package (WHLP), a free e-learning resource for use by educators, health providers and health sciences students (particularly medical and nursing students) in developing countries.
- WWW Virtual Library: Biosciences - Nursing Resources
Organisations and Networks
UN and multinational
- International Council of Nurses
"A federation of national nurses' associations, representing nurses in more than 120 countries to ensure quality nursing care for all, sound health policies globally, the advancement of nursing knowledge, and the presence worldwide of a respected nursing profession and a competent and satisfied nursing workforce"
Government
Non Government
- Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) - [USA]
The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) is a US national organization representing the deans, faculty and students of the accredited member schools of public health and other programs seeking accreditation as schools of public health.
- Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER)
ASPHER is a key independent organisation in Europe dedicated to strengthening the role of public health through the training of public health professionals for both practice and research.
- Alan Guttmacher Institute (USA)
family planning, sexual education, HIV/AIDS prevention
- Global Health Education Consortium
"GHEC is a consortium of faculty and health care educators dedicated to global health education in North American health professions schools and residency programs. GHEC is a non-profit organization of health professionals, educators and institutions. Through its focus on education, GHEC provides dedicated global health leadership to educate, train and mentor healthcare students, faculty, professionals and practitioners to address global health challenges."
- Sex Education Coalition (USA)
"Comprised of educators, health care professionals, trainers, and legislators dedicated to providing information and supporting informed discussion concerning sexuality education. The Coalition plans to use this site in a variety of ways: to offer educational materials to sexuality and family life educators, to provide a forum for discussion (between clinicians, legislators, parents and youth), to provide up-to-date information from the CDC and the NIH (as well as other reputable scientific agencies), and to present a variety of materials and resources to the general community concerning sexuality education"
- Sex Education Forum (UK)
Based at the National Children's Bureau, the forum is an umbrella body bringing together national organisations representing children, health, education, religion and parents. It works to promote the teaching of effective and appropriate sex education and ensure that all children receive their entitlement to sex education.
- SIECUS: Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
A national, private, non-profit advocacy organisation which affirms that sexuality is a natural and healthy part of living. SIECUS develops collects and disseminates information, promotes comprehensive education about sexuality and advocates the rights of individuals to make responsible sexual choices.
- UK's Faculty of Public Health
"The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) is the standard setting body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom."
- World Health Communication Associates
"The World Health Communication Associates (WHCA) works to improve health by helping public health advocates and organisations acquire the knowledge, savvy and resources to enable their messages to stand out and positively shape health choices, behaviours and perceptions in local, national and global information marketplaces. WHCA focuses exclusively on health and environmental issues and does no product promotion. The Associates are an independent network of active, strategically-placed communicators, with practical experience in health and environment reporting, investigative journalism, policy advocacy, intergovernmental and non-governmental public and press relations, international conference organisation and cross-border campaigning."
Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area
- Healthtraining.org
Inventory of postgraduate training programmes in international health provided by Medicus Mundi, Switzerland
- Michigan Public Health Training Center
The Michigan Public Health Training Center (MPHTC) is one of 14 training centres throughout the United States, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professions. MPHTC strives to improve the competence of the current and future public health workforce to improve the public's health. Its mission is to increase the knowledge and strengthen the skills of Michigan's present and future public health workforce to ultimately improve the public's health. This includes people working in community-based organizations, divisions of health care organizations and health plans, educators, and state and local health departments.
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Research
Conference reports
Journals, Newsletters, Forums
Bibliographies, Libraries
Public health bookshops
Original website founded Lucien E. Schlosser and Eberhard Wenzel, 1997.
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