Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States.
Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States.
Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 5;10:992835. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.992835. eCollection 2022.
With a growing emphasis on health equity in public health practice and research, ensuring a competent and skilled public health workforce is critical to advancing the public health mission of a healthier nation. The expansion of undergraduate public health programs provides a unique opportunity for more extensive training and education of the next generation of public health professionals and to center undergraduate public health education around the need to be competent in addressing health disparities to achieve health equity. Following national accreditation standards set by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), undergraduate Bachelor of Public Health (BSPH) students at the University at Buffalo (UB) must complete a capstone course before graduation. This course focuses on integrating and synthesizing knowledge acquired from the BSPH core curriculum through analysis, explanation, and addressing public health problems an interdisciplinary approach. We designed the most recent iterations of the capstone class based on the model that includes cross-cutting skills as defined by CEPH, evidence-based decision-making skills, established learning objectives of the course, and centering on health equity. This course also builds on the students' previously acquired knowledge with an ultimate goal to prepare the graduating seniors for the "real world" health equity-related public health activities. As a part of the coursework, students complete case studies, article reviews, and active learning group activities that target each component of the model. The final products of the course are a synthesis paper and oral presentation based on a public health problem as identified through surveillance data, analyzing causes of this problem, identifying critical stakeholders, creating an evidence-based solution to the problem, and explaining how health inequities may be addressed through the proposed solution. Centering the culminating course for BSPH undergraduate students on health equity will help ensure a competent and skilled workforce, informed by accreditation standards and prepared to lead our national public health goal of improved and equitable population health.
随着公共卫生实践和研究对健康公平的重视日益增加，确保一支有能力和技能的公共卫生劳动力对于推进国家更健康的公共卫生使命至关重要。扩大本科公共卫生课程为下一代公共卫生专业人员提供了更广泛的培训和教育机会，并将本科公共卫生教育的重点放在需要有能力解决健康差距以实现健康公平上。按照教育公共卫生理事会 (CEPH) 设定的国家认证标准，布法罗大学 (UB) 的本科公共卫生学士 (BSPH) 学生在毕业前必须完成一门顶点课程。该课程侧重于通过分析、解释和解决公共卫生问题来整合和综合从 BSPH 核心课程中获得的知识，采用跨学科方法。我们根据包括 CEPH 定义的交叉技能、循证决策技能、课程既定学习目标以及以健康公平为中心的模型，设计了最近几轮顶点课程。本课程还基于学生以前获得的知识，最终目标是让即将毕业的大四学生为与健康公平相关的“现实世界”公共卫生活动做好准备。作为课程作业的一部分，学生完成案例研究、文章评论和以目标为导向的主动学习小组活动，以针对模型的每个组成部分。课程的最终成果是根据监测数据确定的公共卫生问题的综合论文和口头报告，分析该问题的原因，确定关键利益相关者，为该问题创建循证解决方案，并解释如何通过拟议解决方案解决健康不平等问题。将 BSPH 本科生的顶点课程集中在健康公平上，将有助于确保一支有能力和技能的劳动力，符合认证标准，并为我们改善和公平的人口健康这一国家公共卫生目标做好准备。
