Unit information: Public Health in Practice in 2018/19

Unit name	Public Health in Practice
Unit code	BRMSM0004
Credit points	10
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Kipping
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Bristol Medical School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

This unit provides students with the skills, techniques and context to practice public health, across the three domains of public health (health protection, health improvement, and healthcare public health). The unit will cover health needs assessment, methods to assess the impact of a plan on population health, communicating public health issues to the public, improving health within a political context including the use of advocacy, partnership working, and development of public health policies and strategies. Throughout the unit ethical principles of public health will be considered in the context of public health practice. The unit enables students to explore these issues in relation to key public health issues (whole system health and social care planning, sustainability, digitalisation, globalisation, and new developments).

Intended Learning Outcomes

The student should be able to:

1. Design a health needs assessment to inform the development of a policy or strategy to improve population health
2. Critique different approaches to assessing the impact on health of a policy, plan or project
3. Select and prepare appropriate methods of communication with the public about a public health topic
4. Recommend the case for prevention within a whole system approach to planning and provision of health and social care
5. Demonstrate the opportunities for digital developments to improve population health
6. Justify the role for public health with regard to sustainability, climate change, and economic development
7. Provide public health advice to commissioners by critically appraising the evidence for a new technology, drug, or intervention to provide public health advice

Teaching Information

The module will be taught at the University of Bristol over one teaching block. There will be 25 contact hours split between lectures (10 hours) and seminars (15 hours). Non-contact hours will comprise tutor-directed and self-directed study including reading, accessing web-based supplementary materials, critical analysis and completion of assessments (75 hours).

Assessment Information

Formative assessments will support learning of students by using exercises, quizzes, feedback following group discussions and writing a press release.

Summative assessment of the unit will be through a 1-hour closed-book, written exam (short answers) which will require the student to demonstrate skills and knowledge developed across the unit (contributing 70% of final unit mark) (ILOs 2-7). Students will also complete a short project designing a health needs assessment to inform the development of a policy or strategy to improve population health (30% of final unit mark) (ILO 1).

An overall score of 50% will be required to pass the module.

Reading and References

There is no set course text for this unit.

Recommended reading:

1. Brownson, R.C., Baker, E.A., Deshpande, A.D., Gillespie, K.N. (2017) Evidence-Based Public Health. 3^rd ed. Maidenhead: OUP.
2. Donaldson, L.J., Rutter, P. (2017) Donaldsons' Essential Public Health, 4^th ed. CRC Press.
3. Guest, C., Ricciardi, W., Kawachi, I., Lang, I. (2013) Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice (Oxford Medical Handbooks). Oxford: OUP.
4. Sim, F., McKee, M. (2011). Issues in Public Health. 2^nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.