Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113215

Juliana Van Olphen, PhD¹, Buffy Bunting, MPH, CHES², and Mary Beth Love, PhD². (1) Health Education, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave HSS 326, San Francisco, CA 94132, 415-405-2149, jvo@sfsu.edu, (2) Department of Health Education, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, HSS 319, San Francisco, CA 94132

The Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Program in Health Education at San Francisco State University (SFSU) provides professional preparation in the core competences, functions and responsibilities for Community Health Educators designated by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC). In addition to this central goal, the B.S. Program embraces an ecological approach, emphasizing the importance of addressing multi-level determinants of health by systematically infusing objectives of social justice and structural intervention into its core courses. These courses develop student skills and competencies needed to promote health and prevent disease among diverse populations. In order to evaluate how well the program is meeting its goals and to ensure the program is responsive to its stakeholders, several key assessment tools have been developed and are regularly implemented. These tools include a pre- (upon students' entry into the program) and post-survey (upon graduation) of students' mastery of competencies, student interest in the field upon entry, and their satisfaction with the program and curricula upon graduation. Students' practice of selected competencies is evaluated prior to graduation by preceptors who supervise students' fieldwork. An alumni survey assesses students' perceptions of how well the program prepared them for their current positions in the field and helps the department to track its students post-graduation. Findings to date, including strengths and weaknesses of the assessment tools, next steps for assessment, quality improvement of the program, and preparation for accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• To identify and describe assessment tools that are important to evaluating an undergraduate program in Health Education;
• To describe strengths and weaknesses of these assessment tools;
• To describe how assessment tools provide important feedback to help improve undergraduate curricula in Health Education and make it most responsive to its stakeholders;
• To identify strategies to help a program prepare for accreditation.

Keywords: Accreditation, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.