Principles of Public Health
Credits
7
Number of course hours / week
2
Number of seminar hours / week
1
Total course hours in the study plan
24
Total seminar hours in the study plan
14
Course Lecturer
Seminar Assistant
Conditions for Course
Enrollment of a minimum number of students.
Conditions for Seminar
According to the Babeș-Bolyai University regulations, students are requested to attend at least 75% of seminars.
Prerequisites Based on the Curriculum
Not applicable.
Prerequisites Based on Competences
Not applicable.
Discipline Objectives
General Objectives
This course examines population-based approaches to improve the health of the public. The focus will be on learning methods for community health improvement — from assessment to finding and implementing evidence based public health interventions.
Specific objectives
Learning Objectives
- Define public health (what it is)
- Learn the difference between individual- and population-based strategies for improving health (how it works)
- Know how public health is organized at the local, state, and national level; and about the core functions of public health (assessment, policy development, and assurance).
- Describe the philosophy of public health
- Understand the advantages and limitations of the various types of population-based approaches to improve public health (education, marketing, engineering, policy, and law)
- Learn about evidence-based public health, and how to locate these approaches in the literature and on the web
- Learn about the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to public health
- Prepare an evidence-based analysis of a contemporary public health issue
Competencies
Professional Competencies
Biostatistics
- Describe the roles biostatistics serves in the discipline of public health
Health policy and management
- Apply the principles of program planning, development, budgeting, management and evaluation in organizational and community initiatives
Social and behavioral sciences
- Identify basic theories, concepts and models from a range of social and behavioral disciplines that are used in public health research and practice.
Communication and informatics
- Describe how societal, organizational, and individual factors influence and are influenced by public health communications.
- Demonstrate effective written and oral skills for communicating with different audiences in the context of professional public health activities.
Diversity and culture
- Describe the roles of, history, power, privilege and structural inequality in producing health disparities.
- Discuss the importance and characteristics of a sustainable diverse public health workforce.
- Differentiate among availability, acceptability, and accessibility of health care across diverse populations.
- Differentiate between linguistic competence, cultural competency, and health literacy in public health practice.
Professionalism
- Analyze determinants of health and disease using an ecological framework.
- Embrace a definition of public health that captures the unique characteristics of the field (e.g., population-focused, community-oriented, prevention-motivated and rooted in social justice) and how these contribute to professional practice.
Systems thinking
- Identify unintended consequences produced by changes made to a public health system.
Consolidated Competencies
Program planning
Describe how social, behavioral, environmental, and biological factors contribute to specific individual and community health outcomes.
Contents
| Courses | Teaching methods | Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to public health | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Assessing needs and resources | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Pick priorities | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Finding programs that work | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Program planning and evaluation | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Leadership and professionalism | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| The public health system | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Community health assessment and improvement | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Diversity and culture in communities | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Evidence-based public health | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Public health communications | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Public health advocacy | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Public health ethics | Oral presentation | 1 course |
| Final examination |
| Seminars | Teaching methods | Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to public health | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Assessing needs and resources | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Pick priorities | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Finding programs that work | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Program planning and evaluation | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Leadership and professionalism | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| The public health system | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Community health assessment and improvement | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Diversity and culture in communities | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Evidence-based public health | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Public health communications | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Public health advocacy | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Public health ethics | Class discussion | 1 seminar |
| Final examination |
Bibliography
- Bernard Turnock. Public Health: What it is and how it works. 4th Edition. Jones and Bartlett, 2009.
- Brownson et al. Evidence-Based Public Health. Oxford, 2003.
- Nelson et al. Communicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners, American Public Health Association (selected chapters).