Loos G P, Shein T, Gao G
School of Public Health, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA.
Am J Prev Med. 1997 Nov-Dec;13(6 Suppl):85-92.
Departments of health can provide applied settings for students from academic public health programs to explore the connection of course work to real-life circumstances. Barriers exist for public health practitioners, however, that restrict their willingness to engage in joint efforts with academe. To address these barriers, they must be identified and characterized. That is, it is important for academics in public health to respect both barrier-issues and to understand underlying value constructs, if they hope to employ public health practice settings to advance their students' training.
A 100% sample of all midmanagers was surveyed at the Hawaii Department of Health by the School of Public Health. Nine clusters of "key issues for continued collaboration" were identified and rank-ordered in importance. Further analysis of the rank-orders, using multidimensional scaling, distinguished important underlying value constructs crucial to improving joint activities between the school and department.
Working together, representatives from the Department and School identified the first three value dimensions as cooperation, implying the need for true reciprocal and equal interaction; obligation, signifying mutual responsibility and parallel investment; and, professional practice, suggesting the balanced interdigitation of research with practice. These value dimensions account for three fifths (58%) of the variance in opinion.
Detailed analysis of these dimensions suggests that low-cost strategies improve collaboration, and foster possible consolidation, between academic and clinical public health settings. A stronger partnership between the school and the department is likely, provided the two agencies can address these issues satisfactorily. Insights from the Hawaii experience may prove useful to other academic public health practice settings. Recommendations that may improve collaboration include holding joint semi-annual meetings, a school bulletin board listing practica at the department, a public health leadership course, improved electronic communications between the school and the department, joint appointments to the two agencies, faculty release time to conduct research to improve practices at the department, and the establishment of a steering committee for the collaboration.
卫生部门可以为学术性公共卫生项目的学生提供应用场景，以探索课程学习与现实情况之间的联系。然而，公共卫生从业者面临一些障碍，限制了他们与学术界共同努力的意愿。为了克服这些障碍，必须对其进行识别和描述。也就是说，如果公共卫生领域的学者希望利用公共卫生实践场景来推进学生的培训，那么尊重障碍问题并理解潜在的价值观念至关重要。
公共卫生学院对夏威夷卫生部的所有中层管理人员进行了100%的抽样调查。确定了九类“持续合作的关键问题”，并按重要性进行了排序。使用多维尺度分析对排序结果进行进一步分析，区分出对改善学校与部门之间的联合活动至关重要的重要潜在价值观念。
部门和学校的代表共同确定了前三个价值维度：合作，意味着需要真正的相互平等互动；义务，代表相互责任和平行投入；专业实践，表明研究与实践的平衡交织。这些价值维度占意见差异的五分之三（58%）。
对这些维度的详细分析表明，低成本策略可改善学术性和临床性公共卫生场景之间的合作，并促进可能的整合。如果两个机构能够令人满意地解决这些问题，学校与部门之间可能会建立更强大的伙伴关系。夏威夷经验中的见解可能对其他学术性公共卫生实践场景有用。可能改善合作的建议包括每半年举行一次联席会议、在学校公告栏列出部门的实习机会、开设公共卫生领导力课程、改善学校与部门之间的电子通信、两个机构的联合任命、教师有时间进行研究以改进部门的实践，以及设立合作指导委员会。
