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| Research article summary (published 27 Feb 2003): |
New skills for a new age: leading the introduction of public health concepts in healthcare curricula.
Full Abstract
Health policy in the UK is going through significant changes. At the heart of the transformation is a dedicated focus on public health. The new primary-care-based health system will not only be premised on a specialist public health workforce, but also on broader based public-health-oriented health professionals. Within primary care, widening the foundation of health professionals with public health competencies suggests that higher education bodies will need to adapt their curricula to an approach that highlights population-based health principles, preventive philosophy, and public health concepts and methods. The first part of this paper describes the mapping of the public health content of healthcare curricula at one university in England, based on the 10 public health standard areas of competencies of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine. The second part examines, through the findings of a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis, the factors that advocates for a public-health-oriented educational strategy must examine before embarking on the instigation and development of public health concepts in the healthcare curricula. The aspects that necessitate consideration include strengths such as the prevailing policy, market forces, commitment, and motivation to the effort, and the availability of resources, information and external contacts. Features such as political drive and advocacy, interest in the education debate, collaborative links through joint working and partnerships, and ongoing internal reforms and restructuring could all act as opportunities. However, resistance and anxiety are to be expected, the operationalization of the effort and empowerment of those leading it need to be thought about, and issues of control and interests are critical. The presence of conflicting priorities and competition or the lack of vision and directives, or uncertainty about change, could act as threats and barriers to the effort. If shifting the 'traditional' healthcare curricula to a more 'innovative' public-health-oriented one is to be a success, administrators of educational change will need to take into account a 'melange' of factors and stakeholders involved in a gradual and incremental process.
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Author information
Author/s: el Ansari, W (W); Russell, J (J); Spence, W (W); Ryder, E (E); Chambers, C (C);
Affiliation: Department of Public and Community Health, School of Health and Social Care, Oxford Brookes University, Heritage Gate, Sandringham House, Sandy Lane West, Oxford OX4 6LB, UK. walid.ansari(-atsign-)brookes.ac.uk
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article
Journal: Public health (Public Health), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2003-Mar; vol 117 (issue 2) : pp 77-87
Dates: Created 2003/06/13; Completed 2003/07/23; Revised 2004/11/17;
PMID: 12802973, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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