Departmental Leadership: Navigating Productive Tension While in a Paradoxical Role

The landscape of higher education is dynamic and calls for faculty and academic administrators to not only prepare those entering the workforce with current skills, knowledge, and values but to do so in an environment that is resourceful with the tools, and personnel necessary to educate the citizenry. A critical component in achieving this noble mission is the role of the Department Chair, who spans both the academic and administrative environments. The Department Chair, whether at a public or private institution must serve multiple masters which include, senior academic administrators, departmental faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, community partners, and donors. The challenges that arise while in this role are many, for example, budgetary, personnel, and academic program accreditation/certification. Successes also do occur as evidenced by enrollment and graduation rates, and sincere appreciation from those we have taught. The Department Chair role is essential and deserves to possess the authority necessary to make decisions that are in the best interest of students, faculty, and the academic programs offered. The purpose of this perspective is to offer recommendations, grounded in experience, that may assist the Department Chair in navigating productive tension that can arise while working in this role that is often paradoxical at times

Public Health Genomics: The Essentials. By Claudia N. Mikail

The sequencing of the human genome in 2001 provided researchers, clinicians, policymakers, ethicists, and public health practitioners with a myriad of information to potentially improve disease outcomes on an individual and population basis. Genomics is a burgeoning field of study that examines the interactions among the genetic material in the human body, including interactions with environmental and behavioral factors. The role of public health in this new field of study is complementary, since population trends, health disparities, and the social determinants of health contribute to our understanding of the underlying causes of disease provided by genomic research. Thus, the new discipline of public health genomics has improved our ability to carry out the health professional’s mission to promote health and prevent disease. Public Health Genomics: The Essentials is a recent book that describes this emerging ‘‘interface between science and society.’

The educated citizen and global public health issues: One model for integration into the undergraduate curriculum

The Educated Citizen Initiative proposes that an understanding of public-health issues is a core component of an educated citizenry and is essential to develop one’s societal responsibility. This initiative supports the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.” Furthermore, the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) framework developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities supports the “integration of public-health education into general and liberal education with an aim to produce an educated citizenry.” The LEAP framework is implemented by teaching about the role of social determinants in a population’s health status; the significance of personal and social responsibility; and providing skills for inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving, and evaluation. This article describes one university’s experience in generating an educated citizenry cognizant of comprehensive public-health conflicts, thus contributing to both a local and global perspective on learning

Journal Club Revisited: Teaching Evidence-Based Research and Practice to Graduate Students in a Professional Degree Program

A Journal Club can be a learning exercise that allows for the critique and pursuant analytic discussion of empirical studies, and encourages the public health, health administration, or health policy student to better understand how evidence-based research contributes to evidence-based practice. The purpose of this paper is to describe a learning exercise that implements the Journal Club to evaluate strengths and limitations of relevant research studies and their potential influence on evidence-based practice. This learning exercise was developed to increase discipline-specific knowledge and improve analytical thinking to form and communicate a well-researched and reasoned critique about current peer-reviewed research. Specifically, the exercise was designed to: (1) identify the peer-review process and its influence on evidence-based practice; (2) curate primary resources for selected health issues; (3) evaluate a published, peer-reviewed research article for its rigor and limitations with respect to reported methods, findings, and applicability to professional practice; and (4) facilitate a discussion about discipline-specific research in a concise, professional manner. At the conclusion of the exercise, graduate students, who are also working professionals, reflected on the utility of examining how evidence-based research impacts evidence-based practice. The benefits of this applied learning approach for students and the faculty instructor are discussed

Co-producing healthcare in a volume vs. value-based healthcare system: perspective of a parent of a patient and a health professions’ educator

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim framework represents an approach to optimizing a health system’s performance by focusing on improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing healthcare costs. As the US healthcare system undergoes substantial reformation and a shift from fee-for-service payment to value-based models, an approach that emphasizes the co-production of healthcare, our healthcare system must work in concert with the Triple Aim to improve the health experience for patients across multiple environments. Co-production in healthcare means that patients contribute to the provision of health services as partners of professional providers. To highlight how the current healthcare model failed a patient by delaying diagnosis and subsequent care, thus causing undue suffering, the personal experience of one of the author’s children is reported as a narrative. The purpose of communicating this patient experience is to: 1) remind healthcare providers about the importance of not only listening, but hearing the patient and their parent’s concerns; 2) readily admit when a patient’s clinical presentation falls outside of their expertise; and 3) co-produce healthcare by working with the patient and their family. This patient experience serves to reinforce the commitment to co-produce health with patients and their families in a manner that emphasizes the value of care

Are We Practicing What We Are Taught in Health Professions’ Education? Coproducing Health Care

Health-care providers and educators are inherently empathetic, compassionate, experienced professionals who entered their profession to assure the complementary missions of public health and health care. These missions work to ensure conditions in which people can be healthy via disease and injury prevention, health promotion, and timely, effective, coordinated care (1). The skills necessary to achieve these crucial outcomes (ie, listening to the patient and their family, exhibiting empathy, and understanding the significance of the social determinants of health, etc) are routinely taught in health professions’ education. To highlight the necessity for these representative competencies covered throughout the course of health professions’ education, the personal experience of one of the author’s children is reported as a narration. The purpose of communicating this patient experience is to remind health-care providers: (a) about the importance of not only listening but hearing the parents of our patients and the patients themselves, (b) to actively practice the art and skill of empathy as the health-care setting can be overwhelming for patients and their families, and (c) to consider the impact of the social determinants of health on one’s health status to date. This 5-part patient experience serves to strengthen our commitment to assure that we practice what we are taught with the goal to coproduce health with our patients and their families

Instruction Model Using Collaborative Tools That Promote Competence Attainment in a Health Professions Graduate Program

Competency-based education is widespread in graduate public health and health administration programs. The Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) amended its criteria for accreditation with more of an emphasis on skills-based curricula as opposed to solely a knowledge-based curricula so graduates would be ready to join the workforce with the requisite knowledge and skills. The purpose of this article is to describe two tools that promote select CEPH competence attainment via collaborative online pedagogical approaches. Specifically, the assignments utilizing these tools were designed to: (1) curate and evaluate primary resources for a selected health issue; (2) develop questions based on the research and information presented; and (3) communicate discipline-specific research in a concise, professional manner to the general population. The foundational CEPH competencies these assignments addressed include: evidenced-based approaches to public health, planning and management to promote health, policy in public health, and communication. As today\u27s health professions students come to our educational programs from diverse professional backgrounds with varying levels of expertise, understanding how research and practice inform each other and how this relationship affects their daily work is an essential element that can be transported from one position to the next over the course of a career

Teaching Health Impact and Behavior with Infographics

The use of Infographics can be a tool that not only allows for the communication of empirical health data in an understandable format, but encourages the health administration student to present evidence-based research in a creative manner. The purpose of this paper is to describe a learning exercise that implements Infographics to demonstrate an impact of a health issue and/or encourage a health behavior change. This learning exercise is developed to increase student knowledge and visual literacy skills with respect to presenting, in a concise format, a well-researched and referenced health issue and/or a health behavior change. Specifically, the exercise was designed to: (a) curate health statistics and reference information for the selected health issue; (b) identify media resources and apply copyright and fair use in a proper manner; (c) evaluate internet resources for credibility and accuracy; and (d) utilize Infographic tools to communicate one\u27s visual viewpoint. At the conclusion of the course, students reflected on the effective visual aspects of their Infographics and the points that were challenging to communicate using this medium. The benefits of this applied learning approach for students and the faculty instructor are discussed