Department of Health Management and Policy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States.
Front Public Health. 2023 Apr 27;11:1185845. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1185845. eCollection 2023.
initiative promotes that an understanding of public health issues is a principal component of an educated population and is necessary to develop social responsibility and promote civic dialog. This initiative supports the Institute of Medicine's (now the National Academy of Medicine) recommendation that "all undergraduates should have access to education in public health." The purpose of our work is to examine the extent to which 2- and 4-year U.S. state colleges and universities offer and/or require a public health course. Select indicators identified include the presence and type of public health curriculum, public health course requirement, presence of public health graduate program offering, pathways to public health, Community Health Worker training, as well as demographic information for each institution. An analysis was also conducted for the historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and the same select indicators were examined. The data suggest that there is an imperative need for a public health curriculum across the nation's collegiate institutions with 26% of 4-year state institutions lacking a full undergraduate public health curriculum; 54% of 2-year colleges not offering a pathway to public health education; and 74% of HBCUs not offering a public health course or degree. In the age of COVID-19, syndemics, and considering the post-pandemic phase, we argue that expanding public health literacy at the associate and baccalaureate level can help prepare an educated citizenry who is both public health literate and one that can demonstrate resilience in the face of public health challenges.
该倡议主张，了解公共卫生问题是民众受教育的主要组成部分，也是培养社会责任感和促进公民对话的必要条件。这一倡议支持美国国家医学研究院（前身为医学研究所）的建议，即“所有本科生都应接受公共卫生教育”。我们的工作目的是调查美国 2 年制和 4 年制州立学院和大学提供和/或要求开设公共卫生课程的程度。选定的指标包括公共卫生课程的存在和类型、公共卫生课程的要求、公共卫生研究生课程的开设情况、通向公共卫生的途径、社区卫生工作者培训，以及每个机构的人口统计信息。我们还对历史上的黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）进行了分析，并对相同的选定指标进行了检查。数据表明，全国学院和大学都迫切需要开设公共卫生课程，有 26%的 4 年制州立机构缺乏完整的本科公共卫生课程；54%的 2 年制学院没有提供通向公共卫生教育的途径；74%的 HBCUs 没有开设公共卫生课程或学位。在 COVID-19 时代、综合征时代，以及考虑到后疫情阶段，我们认为，在副学士和学士学位层面扩大公共卫生知识，可以帮助培养有文化的公民，使他们既具备公共卫生知识，又能在面对公共卫生挑战时表现出韧性。
