Implementation of the recommendations of the Consensus Conference on Undergraduate Public Health Education

The Consensus Conference on Undergraduate Public Health Education recommended the development of Web sites to provide information on undergraduate public health and to share curricular materials. It also recommended faculty development efforts to assist colleges and universities in developing new introductory public health courses. In addition it was recommended that health professions education and graduate public health degree programs encourage their applicants to enroll in introductory undergraduate public health courses. Efforts to implement all these recommendations are now underway. A Web site is being developed to inform potential students of the availability of undergraduate public health education and to link these opportunities to graduate public health education and to careers in public health. Undergraduate public health curricular materials are available on the web organized using the curriculum frameworks included in the Consensus Conference reports. A pilot faculty development program will provide workshops, teachers' guides and web based materials for faculty from colleges and universities without schools or program in public health including community based public health practitioners. Discussions are underway in graduate clinical health professional programs to augment the traditional undergraduate requirements to include some undergraduate public health as part of a new learning outcomes based approach. Together these efforts lay the ground work for a long term effort to institutionalize undergraduate public health education as a basis for building future support for public health programs and infrastructure.