Building health systems capacity in global health graduate programs: reflections from Australian educators

Negin, Joel; Martiniuk, Alexandra; Morgan, Chris; Davies, Philip; Zwi, Anthony B.

doi:10.1186/1472-698x-12-14

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…While the concept of global health originated in the developed world, due to the nature of global health, the long-term relevance and success of education in global public health education depends on the adaptation of the curriculum in both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) (35, 37). In a recent review, Rabbani and colleagues have argued that schools of public health in LMIC can contribute to overcoming several public health challenges faced by LMIC by building the capacity of cadres of competent and well-motivated public health workforce including educators, practitioners, and researchers (38).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Global Health Competencies for Postgraduate Public Health Education

Sawleshwarkar

Negin

2017

Front. Public Health

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During the last decade, the literature about global health has grown exponentially. Academic institutions are also exploring the scope of their public health educational programs to meet the demand for a global health professional. This has become more relevant in the context of the sustainable development goals. There have been attempts to describe global health competencies for specific professional groups. The focus of these competencies has been variable with a variety of different themes being described ranging from globalization and health care, analysis and program management, as well as equity and capacity strengthening. This review aims to describe global health competencies and attempts to distill common competency domains to assist in curriculum development and integration in postgraduate public health education programs. A literature search was conducted using relevant keywords with a focus on public health education. This resulted in identification of 13 articles that described global health competencies. All these articles were published between 2005 and 2015 with six from the USA, two each from Canada and Australia, and one each from UK, Europe, and Americas. A range of methods used to describe competency domains included literature review, interviews with experts and employers, surveys of staff and students, and description or review of an academic program. Eleven competency domains were distilled from the selected articles. These competency domains primarily referred to three main aspects, one that focuses on burden of disease and the determinants of health. A second set focuses on core public health skills including policy development, analysis, and program management. Another set of competency domains could be classified as “soft skills” and includes collaboration, partnering, communication, professionalism, capacity building, and political awareness. This review presents the landscape of defined global health competencies for postgraduate public health education. The discussion about use of “global health,” “international health,” and “global public health” will continue, and academic institutions need to explore ways to integrate these competencies in postgraduate public health programs. This is critical in the post-MDG era that we prepare global public health workforce for the challenges of improving health of the “global” population in the context of sustainable development goals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Global Health Competencies for Postgraduate Public Health Education

Sawleshwarkar

Negin

2017

Front. Public Health

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“…However, despite the importance of training and teaching, with a very few exceptions [ 9 – 11 ], there has so far been little collective reflection on and documentation of what is taught in this field, how teaching is carried out, the challenges experienced by educators and the future of HPSR + A teaching.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengthening post-graduate educational capacity for health policy and systems research and analysis: the strategy of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa

Erasmus

Lehmann

Agyepong

et al. 2016

Health Res Policy Sys

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BackgroundThe last 5–10 years have seen significant international momentum build around the field of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR + A). Strengthening post-graduate teaching is seen as central to the further development of this field in low- and middle-income countries. However, thus far, there has been little reflection on and documentation of what is taught in this field, how teaching is carried out, educators’ challenges and what future teaching might look like.MethodsContributing to such reflection and documentation, this paper reports on a situation analysis and inventory of HPSR + A post-graduate teaching conducted among the 11 African and European partners of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA), a capacity development collaboration. A first questionnaire completed by the partners collected information on organisational teaching contexts, while a second collected information on 104 individual courses (more in-depth information was subsequently collected on 17 of the courses). The questionnaires yielded a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, which were analysed through counts, cross-tabulations, and the inductive grouping of material into themes. In addition, this paper draws information from internal reports on CHEPSAA’s activities, as well as its external evaluation.ResultsThe analysis highlighted the fluid boundaries of HPSR + A and the range and variability of the courses addressing the field, the important, though not exclusive, role of schools of public health in teaching relevant material, large variations in the time investments required to complete courses, the diversity of student target audiences, the limited availability of distance and non-classroom learning activities, and the continued importance of old-fashioned teaching styles and activities.ConclusionsThis paper argues that in order to improve post-graduate teaching and continue to build the field of HPSR + A, key questions need to be addressed around educational practice issues such as the time allocated for HPSR + A courses, teaching activities, and assessments, whether HPSR + A should be taught as a cross-cutting theme in post-graduate degrees or an area of specialisation, and the organisation of teaching given the multi-disciplinary nature of the field. It ends by describing some of CHEPSAA’s key post-graduate teaching development activities and how these activities have addressed the key questions.

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“…Negin and colleagues argued that teaching “health systems in low- and middle-income countries” should be included in global health and argued that global health institutions have a responsibility to support health systems in low- and middle-income countries ( 26 ). Most of the large global health players (WHO, World Bank, etc.)…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining and Developing a Global Public Health Course for Public Health Graduates

Karkee

Comfort

Alfonso

2015

Front. Public Health

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Global public health is increasingly being seen as a speciality field within the university education of public health. However, the exact meaning of global public health is still unclear, resulting in varied curricula and teaching units among universities. The contextual differences between high- and low- and middle-income countries, and the process of globalization need to be taken into account while developing any global public health course. Global public health and public health are not separable and global public health often appears as an extension of public health in the era of globalization and interdependence. Though global public health is readily understood as health of global population, it is mainly practiced as health problems and their solutions set within low- and middle-income countries. Additional specialist competencies relevant to the context of low- and middle-income countries are needed to work in this field. Although there can be a long list of competencies relevant to this broad topic, available literature suggests that knowledge and skills related with ethics and vulnerable groups/issues; globalization and its impact on health; disease burden; culture, society, and politics; and management are important.

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Building health systems capacity in global health graduate programs: reflections from Australian educators

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

A Review of Global Health Competencies for Postgraduate Public Health Education

A Review of Global Health Competencies for Postgraduate Public Health Education

Strengthening post-graduate educational capacity for health policy and systems research and analysis: the strategy of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa

Defining and Developing a Global Public Health Course for Public Health Graduates

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