Health promoting schools as learning sites for physicians in-training

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Although medical schools do well in preparing the next generation of practitioners to diagnose and clinically treat illness, they struggle in preparing them with capabilities in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention. Similarly, health promoting schools (HPS) face challenges in working to enhance the health and educational outcomes of children. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -The authors draw from their local and international collaborative work as practitioners and medical educators to examine how health professions schools can work in partnership with HPS for mutual benefit. Findings -Health advocacy is a core competency in medical education. A primary focus is on health promotion and disease prevention. However, providing practical, experiential opportunities -"learning-by-doing" -is a challenge. To overcome this difficulty, medical schools may be well served by partnering with HPS. This can provide mutually beneficial learning opportunities that will enable emerging physicians to develop health promotion-related knowledge and advocacy skills while the emerging generation of citizens (the children) are enabled to live healthier and more productive lives. Originality/value -The parallel development of Health Promoting Schools and the teaching of health advocacy to health professionals has proceeded to the point where convergence of the gathered knowledge and experience can provide a powerful and synergistic model to advance both initiatives. This conceptual paper focuses outlines the actions that might achieve this.

Children’s Oral Health: The Opportunity for Improvement Using the WHO Health Promoting School Model

“…The current consensus on implementation strategies and the potential of HPS to achieve behavioural change has been summarized in recent publications [13,41,42]. Essential first steps and engagement and implementation components central to effective programs have been identified [12,13,37,[43][44][45]. These include the following: (i) dialogue to identify the health issue(s) to be addressed-it is important that any issue chosen has "relevance" for the community and its importance "resonates" with those who will deliver the HPS program, (ii) achievement of "buy in" to the need for health education and of the concepts central to HPS, (iii) planning of the educational content and health practices to be offered, Advances in Public Health 3 (iv) definition of the roles of teachers and collaborating health professionals/educators/agencies, (v) agreement on support to be provided for HPS program delivery and the evaluation mechanisms to be used to examine impact and effect, (vi) Professional development for teachers-this has been shown to aid the process of HPS delivery by improving participation by school staff and sustaining their commitment.…”