Educating public health champions

Abstract

Objective: This article describes a university course that aimed to create public health champions and its evaluation. The course attracted 92 participants, over three cohorts. Participants included healthcare professionals, fitness instructors, a belly dancer, housing officers, community workers and those who worked in public health policy. Design: The course evaluation aimed to provide a longitudinal understanding of the participants’ learning and the impact of the course in terms of developing the attributes of public health champions. Setting: A university setting in England. Methods: Evaluation methods included questionnaires, self-assessment against UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework statements, ‘check out’ sentences post action learning set meetings, impact statements and unstructured interviews. Results: The evaluation illuminated the participants’ experience of their learning journey, which comprised cognitive, affective and conative learning, the development of public health competences and evidence of putting the learning into public health practice. Conclusion: In total, 76 participants achieved a university award. There was evidence of participants identifying the underlying causes of ill health and using an evidence-based approach to planning, partnership and influencing others. Some participants reported actions that indicated they had become transformative leaders and public health champions. The article discusses limitations to the evaluation and current challenges to public health workforce development in England.