Promoting healthy communities: Integrating public health and medicine in the training of the public health workforce in a new MPH Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) Track in the CoPH - University of Nebraska Medical Center

The integration of medicine and public health is a way to promote healthy communities. Professional education in public health needs to prepare a health professions workforce with adequate competencies to develop, engage and manage community orientation in their public health actions.

The Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) approach which integrates clinical individual care and public health is the appropriate framework for that purpose. The conceptual framework and the content of the curriculum in this new COPC MPH Track are oriented to the implementation of community health care programs by integrating the public health dimension in primary care. This track consists of required courses covering: 1) Principles and Practice of COPC; 2) Opportunities and Challenges in the Applicability of COPC; 3) Health Information and Surveillance for Public Health Practice and 4) Health Disparities and Health Equity.

The competencies that these four courses provide, allow the students to integrate knowledge and skills in the practice of COPC. These competencies are acquired not only in the COPC courses, but also in the other Track courses that provide a strong methodological basis (health information), and understanding of social determinants of health, equity and equality in health and in health care (health disparities) and on management in primary care. A COPC Certificate is also planned. The presentation will analyze how the integration of class work, hands-on activities, and problem solving skills will enable the public health graduate to practice a community orientation of health services. Plans for evaluating this program will be presented.