Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (Drs Apatu, Piggott, Anderson, Alvarez, Dobbins, and Neil-Sztramko, Mr Sinnott, and Ms Harrison) and School of Nursing (Drs Dobbins and Neil-Sztramko), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (Dr Butler-Jones); and National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools, Canada, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (Dr Dobbins).
J Public Health Manag Pract. 2021;27(2):201-207. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001173.
To examine the degree to which Master of Public Health (MPH) programs' course descriptions align with the Public Health Agency of Canada's (PHAC's) core competency categories in order to identify strengths and training gaps in such programs across Canada.
A content analysis of MPH programs in Canada was conducted from July 2019 to November 2019. A sampling frame of programs was obtained from a list from the PHAC Web site. Program information, including mandatory and elective course descriptions, was extracted from each program's Web site and analyzed in NVivo 12. Course descriptions were independently categorized by 2 researchers into 1 or more of the 7 categories of the core competencies outlined by the PHAC.
We identified 18 universities with MPH programs with 267 courses across Canada. Thematic analysis revealed that 100% of programs had coursework that addressed the "Public Health Sciences" and "Assessment and Analysis" categories; 93% addressed "Policy and Program Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation"; 67% addressed each of "Communication," "Leadership," and "Partnerships, Collaboration, and Advocacy"; and only 56% had course descriptions addressing "Diversity and Inclusiveness."
We find that Canadian MPH programs may lack course offerings addressing core competency categories relating to diversity and inclusiveness, communication, and leadership. Our findings were limited in scope as we relied on program Web sites; thus, further research should explore course content in more depth than this course description analysis allowed and identify ways to close the MPH curricular gaps we identified.
研究公共卫生硕士（MPH）课程描述与加拿大公共卫生局（PHAC）核心能力类别之间的契合程度，以确定加拿大各地此类项目的优势和培训差距。
对加拿大的 MPH 项目进行了内容分析，时间从 2019 年 7 月到 2019 年 11 月。从 PHAC 网站上的列表中获得了一个项目抽样框架。从每个项目的网站上提取了项目信息，包括必修和选修课程描述，并在 NVivo 12 中进行了分析。课程描述由 2 名研究人员独立分类为 PHAC 概述的 7 个核心能力类别中的 1 个或多个类别。
我们确定了加拿大 18 所拥有 MPH 项目的大学，共有 267 门课程。主题分析显示，100%的项目课程涉及“公共卫生科学”和“评估与分析”类别；93%涉及“政策和项目规划、实施和评估”；67%涉及“沟通”、“领导力”和“伙伴关系、合作和倡导”；只有 56%的课程描述涉及“多样性和包容性”。
我们发现加拿大 MPH 项目可能缺乏涉及多样性和包容性、沟通和领导力核心能力类别的课程。我们的研究结果范围有限，因为我们依赖于项目网站；因此，应该进行进一步的研究，比这种课程描述分析更深入地探索课程内容，并确定弥补我们发现的 MPH 课程差距的方法。
