Abstract
Individual, Community and Population Health: Developing and Implementing an Integrated Core Course for 21st century MPH education
Carol Dolan, PhD and Lora Sabin, PhD
Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA
APHA 2016 Annual Meeting & Expo (Oct. 29 - Nov. 2, 2016)
Public health is inherently interdisciplinary and inter-professional. Thus, the MPH requires a rigorous, structured, and carefully sequenced curriculum, including a well-designed, interdisciplinary core. The MPH curriculum redesign at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) includes a new Integrated Core Curriculum (ICC) featuring four integrated introductory core courses, including the Individual, Community and Population Health (ICPH) core.
The ICPH core incorporates critical content by focusing on the biological, environmental, socio-economic, behavioral, and cultural factors that impact human health, the global burden of disease, and health disparities. It aims to embed public health's core values, focusing on population health concepts, and the processes, approaches, and interventions that identify and address major health-related needs across the life span.
Course development engaged faculty from each BUSPH department. Over a semester, we identified key content from previously discipline-based core courses (social and behavioral sciences, maternal and child health, health law, environmental health); wove discipline-based content throughout a 14-week course using cross-cutting themes (life course, social justice, and environmental factors) and global and domestic cases; designed a major team-based project; and developed assessments for individual and team-generated work based on course learning objectives.
By designing the integrated core with active stakeholder input, ensuring cross-discipline content, and utilizing competency-based assessments, the ICPH core will train professionals who can integrate different domains of knowledge and perspectives, engage in cooperative learning, and internalize important public health values, including respect, equity, and stewardship. Thus, the structure and outcomes of the new core mimic practice in the workplace.
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Public health or related education Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health