PUBH610 - History and Principles of Public Health

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Unit rationale, description and aim

An in depth understanding of the history and principles of public health is vital to becoming an effective public health professional. In this unit, students will examine the principles of public health and consider key historical developments that have shaped public health, with an emphasis on the broader social and economic influences. Students will examine public health values and ethical principles indicating how they support public health scope of practice. The assessment of evidence used in public health will be introduced particularly as it relates to priority setting and policy development in health care. Students will apply their understanding of the principles fo public health in activities that exemplify key debates, difficulties and resourcing dilemmas of contemporary public health challenges. The aim of this unit is to provide students with the opportunity to evaluate the historical milestones in public health that have shaped it as a discipline and through critical analysis of the key principles that underpin public health practice develop experience in using tools used in the discipline.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Demonstrate advanced knowledge of the history of ‘public health’ as well as public health values, principles and scope of practice (GA5) 

LO2 - Critically analyse research evidence for public health in priority setting and policy development (GA4, GA5)  

LO3 - Critique the role of public health principles and community engagement in improving population health (GA2, GA5)  

LO4 - Apply methods and assessment tools used in contemporary practice to public health challenges (GA6, GA7, GA8)  

Graduate attributes

GA2 - Recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA4 - Think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - Solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - Work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - Locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

Content

Topics will include: 

History of public health 

• Emergence of public health as a discipline  
• Key figures and events in the history of public health (e.g John Snow and the London cholera epidemic) 
• The contribution of the broad social and economic conditions to the emergence of public health  
• Historical influences on contemporary practice (including colonization and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health) 

Public health values, principles and scope of public health practice 

• Public health values and principles (e.g. Individual verus population health, inequality, inequity) 
• Principles of the Ethical Practice of Public Health 
• Australian public health legislation 
• Scope of public health practice 

Evidence for public health prioirity setting and policy development 

• Evidence-based public health research  
• Evidence based resources (e.g. Cochrane Library) 
• Using evidence for public health:  
• prority setting 
• policy development 

Community engagement and behaviour change for improving population health 

• Community engagement, community empowerment and approaches to public health action  
• Value of partnership 
• Cultural competency 
• Theorectical frameworks for individual behaviour change 

 Contemporary public health challenges and approaches 

• Public health challenges (e.g. equity, climate change, (non) communicable diseases, pollution, injury, healthy cities, migration, advocacy and others) 
• The new public health 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

PUBH610 is offered in both multi-mode and online mode. 

Multi-mode 

In multi-mode, this unit is delivered primarily via face-to-face sessions on campus. It comprises lectures and tutorials during the semester, using student-centred teaching and an active learning approach, to support students in the exploration of the history and principles of public health . Lectures are used to teach essential theory and concepts. This learning is then reinforced through facilitated tutorial activities involving reading, writing, discussion, and problem solving, which provides students with the opportunity to apply lecture content to particular public health contexts/scenarios,and progressively develop their ability to apply public health principles and approaches to contemporary health issues. 

Online mode  

In online mode, students aquire essential theoretical knowledge in public health history and principles in a flexible online learning environment, which involves a series of specially designed learning activities. This learning is extended and reinforced through readings, online discussion forums and other interactive activities to develop understanding of public health history and principles. 

The learning and teaching strategies of this unit are designed to allow students to meet the aims, learning outcomes of the unit, and graduate attributes of the University. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to engage actively with unit content and learning activities.

Assessment strategy and rationale

Please note assessment will be equitable for students undertaking either multi-mode or online mode. 

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. In order to successfully complete this unit, students need to complete and submit three graded assessment tasks and obtain an aggregate mark of greater than 50%. 

PUBH610 assessment tasks 1 and 2 are designed to simulate the work of public health practitioners. In Assessment Task 1, students act as population health consultants contracted to perform a health inequality audit of a local area in Victoria. Students apply a standard audit tool to available data on the health status of the local population, and provide an analysis of health inequality in the area. In Assessment Task 2, students will consider factors that influence priority setting and resource allocation in Victoria, informed by their health inequality audits.  

Assessment Task 3, a learning reflection, allows students to consider the unit content as a whole, in terms of its relevance to public health and its applicability to situations students have observed in practice and its practical effects. 

All assessment tasks will be submitted electronically.  

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Lin, V., Smith, J., & Fawkes, S. (2014). Public health practice in Australia: The organised effort, 2nd edition. New South Wales: Allen & Unwin 2014 

Came, H. (2014). Sites of institutional racism in public health policy making in New Zealand. Social Science & Medicine, 106, 214-200 

Kumanyika, S.K. (2014). Five Critical Challenges for Public Health. Health Education & Behavior,41(1), 5–6. doi:10.1177/1090198113511818 

Sherwood, J. (2009). Who is Not Coping with Colonization? Laying Out the Map for Decolonization. Australas Psychiatry, 17(S24). doi:10.1080/10398560902948662 

Ward, J.W. (2006). Silent victories: The History and practice of public health in 20th Century America. Cary, NC, USA Oxford University Press [ACU ebook] 

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2006) What is the evidence on effectiveness of empowerment to improve health. Retrieved from http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/74656/E88086.pdf