Impact of Social Justice and Public Health: A 2-credit undergraduate workshop course for Health Educators

Since Healthy People 2000, reducing or eliminating health disparities has been one of the overarching goals for health promotion and disease prevention in the United States. Thus, it is imperative that health professionals are effectively trained to address these health disparities. A review of literature confirms calls went out within health education and health promotion. Assessments of current competency in these preparation programs were conducted and some initial curriculum adaptation came through the inclusion of cultural competence training. There is a need now to move beyond cultural competency in curriculum to a social determinants of health framework, and to address issues of systematic, institutionalized power and privilege, to provide a grounding in social epidemiology and to build skills in community organizing and advocacy. The current study purposes to provide such a curriculum and to evaluate its effectiveness. Undergraduates enrolled in the 2-credit workshop in Community Health Education Course, entitled ‘Social Justice and Public Health' Spring of 2012 will be recruited for study participation. Mixed method, pre and post measures will be compared to determine the impact in both (a) student knowledge of health disparities and (b) students' perceived ability to address health disparities in practice. Results for impact on student knowledge and perceived ability to address health disparities will be dependent on the comparison of pre and post survey and round table discussion results. Conclusions will include implications for practice and recommendations for addressing health disparities in undergraduate health education and health promotion professional preparation.