Public Health Students Research Articles

The Real-World Writing Project for Public Health Students: A Description and Evaluation

Writing is a key skill for Public Health students, but instructors are not necessarily trained in how to teach writing. The Real-World Writing Project requires students to produce a writing project proposed by a community partner, for example, a report. The project includes multiple assignments that incorporate recommended characteristics for effective assigned writing. This article describes implementation of this project in two Public Health undergraduate courses at a large Midwestern University, including the type of products students produced, the number and type of community partners who participated, and student and community partner evaluations. Anonymous online evaluation surveys were distributed to community partners and students. We received responses from 19 community partners and 53 students. Partners were satisfied with the quality of 94% of the student products and were satisfied with their overall experience with the Real-World Writing Project (mean rating 5.14 on 6-point Likert-type scale, where 6 = extremely satisfied). Partners rated 85% of students as having satisfactory communication with them and were satisfied with the professionalism of 94% of students. Ninety-four percent of students reported being satisfied with the final product they produced and 84% of students indicated that working with their community partner was “very easy.” Students reported that the Real-World Writing Project was beneficial to them versus a more traditional assignment (mean response of 8.0 [ SD 2.3], where 1 represented the least and 10 represented the most satisfaction). Future work will include an evaluation of the project within graduate-level courses.

Global Surgery: The Perspective of Public Health Students

Current research has emphasized the importance of increased involvement of medical professionals and global health specialists for the success of global surgery efforts. This quantitative descriptive study aimed to examine public health students’ perceptions of global surgery. A 21- question mixed method online survey was distributed over eight weeks via student email to all students enrolled in the Masters of Public Health Program at A.T. Still University (ATSU) College of Graduate Health Studies. Of 212 students, 35 (16.5%) respondents completed the survey with 30 students reporting interest in global health in their future public health careers. Two-thirds of students erroneously identified infectious diseases as the leading cause of death worldwide, not traumatic injury. Participants identified infectious disease and OB/GYN as the two medical fields to contribute significantly to global health. Surgical care was felt to be the least economically cost-effective medical field for low and middle-income countries (LMICs). As the first project to report perspectives of public health students regarding global surgery, this study highlighted several significant misconceptions concerning global surgery. Like the results from similar studies in medical students, it is alarming that there is such a paucity of community health knowledge surrounding surgery and its effects on global surgical needs. Further research should focus on the effect on student perceptions after curriculum modification include education regarding the burden of surgical disease and role of global surgery.

Level of Knowledge and Attitude of Waste Management in Faculty of Public Health Students UIN Sumatera Utara Medan

The issue of environmental protection has reached the highest importance in the current global era, but in practice the basic concepts of waste management are often ignored. In this case everyone has the knowledge of the management of waste but in its application be negative or bad. The study was conducted to determine the relationship of the level of knowledge with the attitude of waste management in FKM UIN Sumatera Utara Medan students. This study used a cross-sectional design with a sample of 245 students. Sampling was done using 2 methods. In the first method, samples are taken using Cluster Sampling with the PPS (Probability Proportionate to Size) technique, then the second method is taken using Simple Random Sampling. Inclusion criteria were students who were willing to be respondents of the study and were present during the study and the exclusion criterion were students who resigned and were not present during the study. Analysis of the data used is univariate and bivariate analysis . The results of the analysis of the relationship between the level of knowledge with a good attitude of waste management showed that there were 141 (61.3%) students who had good knowledge of being good in carrying out waste management. While among students who have poor knowledge, there are 11 (73.3%) students who behave well in managing waste. so, there is no significant relationship between the level of knowledge with the attitude of waste management in FKM UIN North Sumatra Medan students.

A Case Study of the Design Practices and Judgments of Novice Instructional Designers

Instructional design and training skills have become a key competency that is expected of public health professionals. However, the research on educating public health students as instructional designers (ID) is lacking. The purpose of this study is to better understand how novice IDs design trainings using their design judgment in an authentic instructional design project in order to provide them with effective educational supports. The data sources of this case study include 11 training lesson plans generated by 37 students through a semester and six semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that: (1) online games, (2) instructional videos, (3) handouts, (4) PowerPoint presentation slides, and (5) infographics were designed and used by novice IDs. In the midst of the various challenges that were encountered, framing judgment, core judgment, instrumental judgment, navigational judgment, and appearance judgment were manifested in the design process of novice IDs. Based on the findings, practical implementations are recommended to develop effective instructional design curricula for novice public health student designers.

A disconnect between classroom and professional writing: we are not teaching public health students to write effective titles.

Titles are considered a crucial element of grant applications, journal articles, reports and other public health documents, but they are often overlooked in student writing assignments. In this article, we argue that public health instructors should teach students how to write compelling document titles. Our argument about titles is part of a broader assertion that public health students should be asked to write in professional formats such as grant applications, reports and journal articles. Requiring students to engage with important writing conventions like titles that are used in the professional workplace helps them make connections between the content they are writing about and the activities, roles, values and context of public health practice. We recommend that instructors explicitly incorporate titles into their assigned writing in three ways: first, instructors should require titles; second, instructors should provide criteria for a good title that are appropriate to the document type and finally, instructors should award points for a good title.

Experiential Learning in Career Development.

This manuscript demonstrates the learning experiences of graduate public health students through mentored field research in cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention over the past 13years. The program has been funded through an R25 grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 2006 and has supported nearly 200 students from different universities in the USA. Included are data on student recruitment, selection, mentorship, and evaluation of research training in US minority settings as well as foreign countries. Examples of students' learning experiences and life-long skills that shaped students' careers are presented. The insights that fostered the experiential learning idea among key leaders at the NCI Cancer training branch have proven to be sound.

Let Master of Public Health Students Experience Statistical Reasoning

Let Master of Public Health Students Experience Statistical Reasoning

Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students: An Expansion of the Mental Health Literacy Scale.

Objective: Although the recently developed mental health literacy scale showed significant score differences between general population and mental health professionals, to this date there is no published scale intended to specifically assess mental health literacy (MHL) in healthcare students. This study constructed a 26-item scale-based measure to assess multiple components of MHL and associated psychometric properties in a sample of medical and public health students of 11 universities in Taiwan. Methods: The development and validation of the scale comprised three phases: measure development, pilot testing (n = 32), and psychometric properties examination (n = 1294). Results: 26 items were generated for five factors: maintenance of positive mental health, recognition of mental illness, attitude to mental illness stigma, help-seeking efficacy, and help-seeking attitude. The scale demonstrated good content validity, internal consistency, and construct validity (factorial validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and known groups validity). Conclusions: The findings suggest that the Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students (MHLS-HS) is a valid, reliable, and practical tool for identifying MHL gaps in medical and public health students. It has the potential to inform remedial curricular interventions for educators and evaluate intervention effectiveness.

Application of social network in traditional sciences education on the vocabulary acquisition of secondary English learner students

Learning vocabulary is probably the most challenging and time-consuming part of learning a foreign language. Researchers argue that social media could affect learners’ vocabulary acquisition. It is hypothesized that teaching science concepts could accompany vocabulary acquisition. We investigated the possible role of social networks (i.e. Telegram) in the improvement of vocabulary knowledge among undergraduate students from the Iranian University of Medical Sciences during September and October 2017. We conducted a quasi-experimental controlled before-after study and allocated female students to intervention and comparison groups at their academic major level (32 public health students as intervention, vs. 29 subject from nutritional sciences as a comparison). The intervention and comparison groups attended 6 lectures. The learners in the intervention group received additional video and text material through Telegram on a weekly basis and we had an open discussion regarding the important word and concepts. Students in both conditions were given a pretest at the beginning and a posttest at the end to measure growth in vocabulary acquisition. We used a linear regression model, adjusted for concept score, pre-test vocabulary score, lecture attended, education and marital status with pretest scores serving as a covariate. We have investigated 61 subjects, where, 32 participated in the Telegram group discussion related to the science concept. Six standard educational videos delivered through a filmed lecture distributed among the intervention group, each of which was approximately 500 words (ranging from 450 to 707) long. We have observed significant improvement in the vocabulary score of participant in intervention (before = 34.37 vs after = 46.03) and comparison groups (before = 32.79 vs after = 36.31). However, the intervention group significantly outperformed the comparison group, P < 0.05). the current study showed that online collaborative learning (i.e. using Telegram), as an assistance tool in education, can increase the communication between teaching faculty and students in such a way that resulted in significant improvement in the vocabulary score of SLL.

My Fourth Child.

My Fourth Child.

A comparative study of oral health attitude and behavior of dental and public health students in Ardabil, Iran using the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the self-reported oral health attitude and behavior of undergraduate dental and public health students, in Ardabil city, Iran to analyze the differences based on the field of education, gender, and level of education. Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed on 195 (119 dental and 76 public health) students using Hiroshima University Dental-Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI). Demographic questions including gender, educational field, and level of education were added to the questionnaire. The frequency of responses to the questions in the questionnaire was separately analyzed, tabulated, and reported. The effect of educational field and gender and level of education of students on their oral health attitude and behavior was analyzed using the chi-square test and Pearson correlation coefficient. The value of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There were some differences in oral health behavior between dental and public health students. Public health students showed more frequent use of hard toothbrush (P = 0.05) and hard strokes (P = 0.02). Overall, there were no statistically significant differences between female and male students (P > 0.05). No change in attitude occurred by an increase in the level of education (P > 0.05). Conclusion: There were some differences in dental health attitude and behavior of dental and public health students.

Testing the "Grandma Hypothesis": Characterizing Skin Microbiome Diversity as a Project-Based Learning Approach to Genomics.

The constantly evolving nature of genomics provides new challenges for students in Public Health as they try to understand how genomic information relates to health and disease. As Public Health curricula attempt to keep pace with the most recent advances in genomics, students should gain experience with analyzing genomic data and applying genomic tools to the study of health-related issues. To advance undergraduate and graduate student education and provide a more comprehensive view of genomics, we developed an educational project including both pedagogic and research components to characterize skin microbial communities (microbiomes) using targeted amplicon sequencing of their genomes (metataxonomy). All students completed the lab procedures, analyzed 16S rRNA genomic data (formative assessments), and wrote a five-page scientific report summarizing and discussing their results (summative assessment). Student grades for the summative assessment ranged from 31.5 to 40 (out of 40) points. They also successfully completed two practicums (problem sets) focused on microbiome sequence data and responded to 12 minute-papers related to genomic topics covered in class. In all these exercises the 2019 students outperformed 2018 students, who did not participate in this educational lab project. By fulfilling all the requirements of this project-based learning experience, students better understood the complexity of genomics and acquired a valuable set of marketable experience and skills in molecular technologies, bioinformatics and statistics (quantitative skills). Additionally, students were able to generate new valuable microbial 16S rRNA genomic data and test hypotheses about the composition and diversity of the microbes living on our skin (microbiota).

Doc’Apella: A Vocal Performance Group Designed to Reduce Stress And Prevent Burnout Among Medical and Health Sciences Students

Introduction: Burnout is common among health professions trainees characterized by emotional exhaustion induced by repeated stressors. Although traditional stress management activities to promote wellness are effective in reducing stress short-term, alternative approaches are needed with the potential for long-term impact. To address burnout among students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), a vocal group was formed to provide a creative outlet. The purpose of this study was to determine the students’ motivation for joining Doc’Apella and assess the impact on burnout. Methods: Students enrolled in a health sciences program were invited to participate during the 2018-19 academic year (August-May). Two volunteer students arranged the music, recorded individual practice tracks, and directed the group during rehearsals two nights/week from 5:30-6:30. Group members selected arrangements and performed in a variety of settings. At the end of the year, participants were invited to complete an anonymous online survey. Results: Of the 98 students on the roster, 18 (18.4%) responded to the survey. Participants included medical students (n = 9, 50.0%), three graduate students (16.7%), two public health students (11.1%), one pharmacy student (5.5%), and three classified as “other” (16.7%). Nine (50.0%) indicated the aspect of the group that was MOST important was “escaping my stress or frustration with a creative activity.” Thirteen (72.2%) felt Doc’Apella was very or extremely beneficial to their “own sense of wellbeing” and 94.4% (n = 17) reported Doc’Apella “helped reduce stress and burnout” somewhat or very much. Conclusion: Creating music with others may provide an effective way for medical trainees to not only to express creative energy but also to connect with others across health professions. Although the results support structured creative activities to reduce stress and burnout, a large-scale study is needed will strengthen empirical evidence and highlight the impact for health professions trainees.

Needs assessment of the public health curriculum based on the first-level health services package in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

INTRODUCTION:After graduation, public health students should be able to work as health care givers providing first-level health care services. Therefore, the educational objectives of public health bachelor's programs should ensure that they acquire the capabilities necessary for this purpose. This study identified the educational objectives that are essential for these students and compared them with the current curriculum in Isfahan, Iran.METHODS:This needs assessment study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the essential educational objectives were identified using a qualitative approach, which involved eight focus group discussions held by a group consisting of experts of the public health headquarters and public health network administration offices of Isfahan province and the public health graduates working in the province's comprehensive health service centers, who were chosen using the purposive sampling method (n = 59). In the second phase, a comparative study was performed by turning the list of essential educational objectives into a checklist and using it to compare these objectives with the objectives in the current course plan in the examined curriculum. In the end, a list of educational objectives not included in the current curriculum of the public health bachelor's program was created.RESULTS:The focus group discussions produced 433 educational objectives in the cognitive domain, 79 objectives in the affective domain, and 179 objectives in the psychomotor domain, which were arranged in eight competency categories. Comparison of the essential educational objectives with the current curriculum showed that the current curriculum does not cover any of the essential objectives regarding care for the age groups of 18–29 and 30–59 and the first aid and only partially covers essential objectives in other competency categories.CONCLUSION:This study found that considering the requirements of first-level health services and the tasks expected from public health graduates to be providing these services, the current curriculum does not cover all essential learning objectives and should be revised to meet additional essential educational objectives.

Training for Foodborne Outbreak Investigations by Using Structured Learning Experience.

We created a free and interactive training activity based on playing cards (disease detective cards) that introduces foodborne outbreak investigations to public health professionals and students. Competencies taught cover selected descriptive and analytic epidemiologic topics, such as case definition, epidemic curve, 2-by-2 tables, relative risks, attack rates, stratification, and confounding.

Factors Associated with Health Literacy for Public Health Students

Factors Associated with Health Literacy for Public Health Students

Health Professions Students' Assessment of an Interprofessional Rural Public Health-Focused Rotation: A Pilot Study Based on the Community-Oriented Primary Care Approach.

Using a community-oriented primary care (COPC) approach, the format for this interprofessional rural rotation was a public health focused team project based in a local health department and primary care setting. The target audience included fourth-year dental students, fourth-year undergraduate students in imaging science, second-year master of public health students, third-year medical students enrolled in the MD/MPH program, second-year nurse practitioner students, fourth-year pharmacy students, second-year MSN nursing students, and first-year PhD students. The specific learning objectives of the curriculum were drawn from emphasis areas of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative’s competency domains and included the development of students’ knowledge to function as a member of an interprofessional team to (1) engage diverse health care professionals, (2) communicate with team members to clarify each member’s responsibility in executing components of a public health intervention, (3) choose effective communication tools and techniques, (4) integrate knowledge and experience of other professions, and (5) engage themselves and others to constructively manage disagreements.Additional learning objectives centered on 10 competencies from the Master’s Degree in Public Health Core Competency Project. Assessment of 13 student participants, as a group, showed increased perceived knowledge in 4 out of 5 selected interprofessional emphasis areas and 9 out of 10 public health competencies. Our curriculum provides promising evidence for one interprofessional rural education model with proven short-term effectiveness among six health professions disciplines, in increasing student knowledge in interprofessional emphasis areas and public health competencies.

Are we teaching our students visual communication? Evaluation of writing assignments in public health

Visuals are an important means through which public health data can be communicated to diverse audiences, yet many public health students are not trained to develop effective visuals. We evaluated writing assignments from courses taught in public health schools and programmes accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health during the 2016–2017 academic year to identify whether they mentioned a visual element, whether the assignment explained how to create the visual, and if the visual element was worth points. Only 13 of 44 writing assignments mentioned a visual element and only two provided some instructions about how to create the visual element(s). Five assignments awarded points for visual elements. The lack of emphasis on visual elements in writing assignments is significant since visual communication is a key skill needed by practitioners to accompany writing to convey important public health information. Visual communication requires a critical thinking process and therefore time to develop the skills to create effective visuals is necessary. Thus, there is a crucial need for dedicated instruction for public health students to establish competence in visual communication.

HANDWASHING DETERMINANTS AND PRACTICES AMONG PUBLIC HEALTH STUDENTS IN THAILAND

Background: Handwashing is an effective way to reduce infectious disease transmission, but health care workers do not always follow hand hygiene guidelines. This research examines handwashing determinants using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and handwashing practices for public health students in Thailand Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the handwashing antecedents and behaviors of students attending the Sirindhorn Colleges of Public Health. Volunteer participants (n = 120) completed self-administered structured questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics to describe the basic characteristics of the collected data in the study. Results: TPB determinant scores were moderate to high (71% to 85%) and the mean handwashing knowledge score was 74% of the total scores. Handwashing practice rates before food preparation and consumption and after coughing or sneezing average less than 80%. Conclusion: SCPH students' attitudes toward handwashing are generally favorable and their handwashing rates are high, but they do not consistently adhere to handwashing protocols. Therefore, handwashing practice among SCPH students is room for improvement, with potential interventions targeting beliefs, social factors, and perceived barriers to handwashing.

Environmental Health Practice Challenges and Research Needs for U.S. Health Departments.

Background:Environmental health (EH) professionals, one of the largest segments of the public health workforce, are responsible for delivery of essential environmental public health services. The challenges facing these professionals and research needs to improve EH practice are not fully understood, but 26% of EH professionals working in health departments of the United States plan to retire in 5 y, while only 6% of public health students are currently pursuing EH concentrations.Objectives:A groundbreaking initiative was recently launched to understand EH practice in health departments of the United States. This commentary article aims to identify priority EH practice challenges and related research needs for health departments.Methods:A horizon scanning approach was conducted in which challenges facing EH professionals were provided by 1,736 respondents working at health departments who responded to a web-based survey fielded in November 2017. Thematic analyses of the responses and determining the frequency at which respondents reported specific issues and opportunities identified primary EH topic areas. These topic areas and related issues informed focus group discussions at an in-person workshop held in Anaheim, California. The purpose of the in-person workshop was to engage each of the topic areas and issues, through facilitated focus groups, leading to the formation of four to five related problem statements for each EH topic.Discussion:EH professionals are strategically positioned to diagnose, intervene, and prevent public health threats. Focus group engagement resulted in 29 priority problem statements partitioned among 6 EH topic areas: a) drinking water quality, b) wastewater management, c) healthy homes, d) food safety, e) vectors and public health pests, and f) emerging issues. This commentary article identifies priority challenges and related research needs to catalyze effective delivery of essential environmental public health services for common EH program areas in health departments. An unprecedented initiative to revitalize EH practice with timely and strategic recommendations for student and professional training, nontraditional partnerships, and basic and translational research activities is recommended. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5161