Planning the teaching of community health (COPC) in an MPH program.

Full Abstract

The Community Medicine approach, focussed on an active assessment of health status with a subsequent provision of health care directed to the community as a whole, is recommended today as a means for addressing the fragmentation of health services. In parallel, in recent years the Community Medicine approach has been incorporated in a growing number of health academic institutions. In this paper it is suggested that the teaching of Community Medicine should be an active process in a practical environmental in which students could be involved with real life situations. Our teaching methods are illustrated by the experience of the Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) Workshop of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Jerusalem. This Workshop is included in the curriculum after the core courses in the Israeli and in the International MPH Program at the Braun SPH. The central component of the workshop are the workgroups of 6-8 students with the assistance of a tutor member of the School's staff. The group, resembling a health team, focussed its work in the assignment of planning a proposal for the development of a community health program in the students' communities. The workshop is an illustration of the problem-based learning method carried out by public health workers of different professions background and with diverse practical experience reproducing a real life situation in a classroom environment. Repeated evaluations done by students has shown a positive assessment as measured by a reported adequate acquisition of knowledge, having an useful experience and practicing skills.

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Author information

Author/s: Gofin, Jaime (J);

Affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Hebrew Univcrsity-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, P.O.B. 12272, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. jaime(-atsign-)md2.huji.ac.il

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Public health reviews (Public Health Rev), published in Israel. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-; vol 30 (issue 1-4) : pp 293-301

Dates: Created 2003/03/04; Completed 2003/04/04; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12613715, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Community Health Planning
Community Medicine - education
Curriculum
Education, Graduate - methods
Education, Public Health Professional - methods
Group Processes
Humans

Humans
Israel
Primary Health Care
Problem-Based Learning
Public Health - education
Schools, Public Health - organization & administration
Teaching - methods

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