Abstract
BackgroundPublic health improvement has long been an important focus for the United Kingdom Department of Health. The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Federation has 84,000 members, such a large number of AHP professionals should play a role in public health initiatives, but it is not clear if they or the AHP students who will be the future healthcare workforce feel themselves equipped to do so. Our aim was to understand the perceptions of AHP students about their role in delivering public health advice.MethodsAHP students were recruited in one teaching university from different departments. Participants were final year AHP students who had completed all clinical placements related to their course. All students were emailed an invitation to participate, and those interested were asked to contact the researchers to participate in one of several focus groups. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using framework analysis by two independent researchers.ResultsNineteen students were recruited and participated in four focus groups. The main themes produced by the data analysis were: understanding of public health issues, perceptions of their role in this, challenges and opportunities to develop a public health role, and preparation for a public health role.ConclusionsAHP students felt that they had a role in public health advice-giving, but barriers to providing this advice included their own lack of confidence and knowledge, time, and the environment of the clinical placement. They considered that there should be more teaching on public health issues, and that these should feature in both the curriculum and on clinical placement.
Highlights
Public health improvement has long been an important focus for the United Kingdom Department of Health
As far as we are aware, the confidence and competence of Allied Health Professions (AHP) students to deliver on Public Health has not been investigated and the aim of this study was to conduct an initial investigation into the perceptions of AHP students regarding their role, confidence, competence, barriers and challenges to delivering brief public health interventions and advice
Students who met the inclusion criteria and who indicated their willingness to be involved were asked to sign a consent form and complete a basic questionnaire outlining their clinical background and demographic details, before invitation to attend a focus group at a convenient time and venue
Summary
Public health improvement has long been an important focus for the United Kingdom Department of Health. The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Federation has 84,000 members, such a large number of AHP professionals should play a role in public health initiatives, but it is not clear if they or the AHP students who will be the future healthcare workforce feel themselves equipped to do so. Our aim was to understand the perceptions of AHP students about their role in delivering public health advice. Public health improvement has long been an important focus for the Department of Health and there is a growing focus in the United Kingdom for the contribution of the wider public health workforce, including the Allied Health Professions to the public health agenda. Its aim is to improve the health of the nation and to reduce health inequalities throughout England. The white paper “Saving lives: Our healthier Nation” provided a national action plan to reduce health inequalities and reduce incidence of cancer and strokes in the United Kingdom
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