"Global Public Health Issues" as a bridge between two-year and four-year colleges

The Educated Citizen and Public Health initiative supports that an understanding of public health is a core component of an educated public and is necessary to develop social responsibility. To respond to this call, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) sought funding from the Association of Prevention Teaching and Research to: 1.) complement its four-year curricula with public health courses; 2.) collaborate with faculty from the Community College System to introduce the public health field through a course in “Global Public Health Issues.” Focus group sessions were held with faculty to: 1.) identify the principles and skills a Global Health course should offer; 2.) review and comment on the developed materials and required community-based service learning experience. UNH has assessed the following outcome measures: student course evaluations, review of experience with community-based partners, consultation of content experts, analysis of students planning to pursue additional public health coursework and/or transfer to a four-year college. This presentation will discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of a Global Health course in the curricula of a two- and four-year college and how it can contribute to accomplishing the following: encourage life-long learning and a commitment to social responsibility; allow for new course/major/minor development in public health; promote collaboration; enable faculty to expand their expertise; broaden the attractiveness of two-year colleges and introduce a vocation-based student population to the value of public health. The framework presented can serve as a model for colleges that want to support the integration of public health into their curricula.