Department of Community Health and Wellbeing, University of Chester, Riverside Campus, Chester CH1 1SF, UK.
Int J Equity Health. 2013 Jun 28;12:46. doi: 10.1186/1475-9276-12-46.
Recent U.K. health policies identified nurses as key contributors to the social justice agenda of reducing health inequalities, on the assumption that all nurses understand and wish to contribute to public health. Following this policy shift, public health content within pre-registration nursing curricula increased. However, public health nurse educators (PHNEs) had various backgrounds, and some had limited formal public health training, or involvement in or understanding of policy required to contribute effectively to it. Their knowledge of this subject, their understanding and interpretation of how it could be taught, was not fully understood.
This research aimed to understand how public health nurse educators' professional knowledge could be conceptualised and to develop a substantive theory of their knowledge of teaching public health, using a qualitative data analysis approach. Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews (n=26) were conducted with eleven university-based PHNEs.
Integrating public health into all aspects of life was seen as central to the knowing and teaching of public health; this was conceptualised as 'embodying knowledge'. Participants identified the meaning of embodying knowledge for teaching public health as: (a) possessing a wider vision of health; (b) reflecting and learning from experience; and (c) engaging in appropriate pedagogical practices.
The concept of public health can mean different things to different people. The variations of meaning ascribed to public health reflect the various backgrounds from which the public health workforce is drawn. The analysis indicates that PHNEs are embodying knowledge for teaching through critical pedagogy, which involves them engaging in transformative, interpretive and integrative processes to refashion public health concepts; this requires PHNEs who possess a vision of what to teach, know how to teach, and are able to learn from experience. Their vision of public health is influenced by social justice principles in that health inequalities, socioeconomic determinants of health, epidemiology, and policy and politics are seen as essential areas of the public health curriculum. They believe in forms of teaching that achieve social transformation at individual, behavioural and societal levels, while also enabling learners to recognise their capacity to effect change.
最近英国的卫生政策将护士确定为减少健康不平等这一社会公正议程的主要贡献者，其假设是所有护士都理解并希望为公共卫生做出贡献。在这一政策转变之后，注册前护理课程中增加了公共卫生内容。然而，公共卫生护士教育者（PHNEs）拥有不同的背景，有些人接受的公共卫生培训有限，或者对有效参与公共卫生政策制定所需的知识和理解有限。他们对这一主题的了解，以及他们对如何教授这一主题的理解和解释，并不完全清楚。
本研究旨在了解公共卫生护士教育者的专业知识如何被概念化，并使用定性数据分析方法，对他们教授公共卫生知识的理论进行深入研究。采用定性深入半结构式访谈（n=26）对 11 位大学 PHNEs 进行了访谈。
将公共卫生融入生活的各个方面被视为了解和教授公共卫生的核心；这被概念化为“体现知识”。参与者确定了体现公共卫生教学知识的意义，包括：（a）拥有更广泛的健康视野；（b）反思和从经验中学习；（c）参与适当的教学实践。
公共卫生的概念对不同的人可能意味着不同的东西。归因于公共卫生的不同含义反映了公共卫生工作者的各种背景。分析表明，PHNEs 通过批判性教学来体现教学知识，这涉及到他们进行变革性、解释性和综合性的过程，以重塑公共卫生概念；这需要 PHNEs 拥有要教授的内容的愿景，知道如何教授，并且能够从经验中学习。他们对公共卫生的看法受到社会正义原则的影响，因为健康不平等、健康的社会经济决定因素、流行病学以及政策和政治被视为公共卫生课程的重要领域。他们相信能够实现个人、行为和社会层面社会变革的教学形式，同时使学习者能够认识到自己改变的能力。
