Public Health: What It Is and How It Works, 2nd Edition
CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS PUBLIC HEALTH?
After completing this part of the textbook, learners will be able to:
articulate several different definitions of public health
describe the origins and content of public heath responses over history
trace the development of the public health system in the U.S.
broadly characterize the contributions and value of public health
identify at least 3 distinguishing features of public health
appreciate public health as a system with inputs, processes, outputs, and results
identify at least 5 Internet web sites that provide useful information on the U.S. public health system
Read Chapter 1 of Public Health: What It Is and How It Works, 2nd edition.
After you have completed this chapter, begin the series of individual exercises for learners listed below. These include computer-based exercises that will introduce you to several Internet web sites relevant to the topics presented in the readings.
Work with a group to complete the group exercises described below. Your instructor will assign you to a group.
After completing the individual and group exercises, take the self-assessment quiz for Chapter 1.
For learners interested in going beyond the basics, a list of additional readings and other materials is provided for each chapter. This list emphasizes the most up-to-date materials related to the topics addressed in the corresponding chapters.
Each learner is required to attend a meeting of an official board of health and to provide a brief report on that meeting (no more than 300 words describing the issues raised, interests represented, and roles demonstrated at that meeting). Since most boards of health meet only once a month, it is important that you plan this visit well in advance.
Each learner will submit a brief response to the following discussion questions and exercises. Approximately 100 words per response is suggested. All links to case studies, web sites, and other documents can also be found on the "Additional Resources" site, which is accessible from the textbook home page.
1. Because of your interest in a public health career, a producer working at a local television station has asked you to provide input into the development of a video explaining public health to the general public. What themes or messages would you suggest for this video? How would you propose presenting or packaging these messages?
2. There is little written in history books about public health problems and responses, thereby suggesting that these issues have little impact on history. Consider the European colonization of the Americas beginning in the 16th century. How was it possible for Cortez and other European figures to subjugate immense Native American cultures with millions of people? What role, if any, did public health themes and issues play?
3. Choose a relatively recent (within the last three years) occurrence/event that has drawn significant media attention to a public health issue or problem (e.g., contaminated meat products, tobacco settlement, Mississippi River flooding). How have different understandings of what public health is influenced public as well as governmental responses to this event?
4. Read the case study "Snow on Cholera: Part 1". (You can also access this through the "Additional Resources" selection on the textbook home page.) What aspects of Snow’s journal reflect modern thinking about the communicability of diseases? What aspects reflect thinking prior to the germ theory? Which factors described in Snow’s journal contributed most to the control of the 1848 cholera outbreak near Golden Square?
5. Review the history of public health activities in Chicago from 1834-1999 and consider how public health strategies and interventions have changed over time in the U.S. What influences were most responsible for these changes? Does this suggest that public health functions have changed over time as well?
6. Access the National Library of Medicine web site and conduct an online literature search of keywords related to the definition, development, and current status of public health. Indicate the parameters used in this search and the general contents of the most useful article that you found.
7. Examine each of the web sites listed below and become familiar with their general contents. Which ones did you find to be the most useful for providing information and insights related to the central topic of this module of the course? ("What Is Public Health?") Why? Are there other web sites you would suggest adding to this list?
Links and Sources of General Information on Public Health:
US Department of Health and Human Services and its various Public Health Service Agencies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration, National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, etc.)
State Health Departments (such as the Illinois Department of Public Health or others that you may find at the ASTHO web site)
Local Health Departments (such as the Chicago Department of Public Health or others you may find through some of the various national web sites or those of state health departments)
Association of Schools of Public Health and individual schools (such as the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and others accessible through the ASPH web site)
8. Develop a "Top 10" list of the most important lessons and themes from this part of the course. Try to be as brief as one of David Letterman's Top 10 lists!
Each group will submit a brief response (300 words or less) to the following exercise:
Team Development: In order to establish and organize students into working teams, group members should get to know each other in terms of names, academic and work background, special skills and interests (these may be relevant to future group activities), access to information and information technology, and similar characteristics. Each group should determine (and report on) how communications will take place, responsibilities will be assigned and carried out, decisions will be made, and dissention will be handled. Each group will submit its proposed operating plan addressing these issues, as well as any other organizational issues.
This is a compendium of additional references and web links to selected sources cited in the readings. Also included are selected materials that have become available since the publication date of the text. All links to case studies, web sites, and other documents used in this module can also be found on the "Additional Resources" site.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Public Opinion About Public Health California and the United States, 1996." MMWR 1998;47:No.4
Detels R, Holland WW, McEwen J, Omen GS. Oxford Textbook of Public Health, Third Edition. New York NY; Oxford University Press; 1997
Fielding JE. Public health in the twentieth century: advances and challenges. Ann Rev Public Health 1999;20:xiii-xxx
Krieger N and Birn A-E. A Vision of Social Justice as the Foundation of Public Health: Commemorating 150 Years of the Spirit of 1848. AJPH 1998;88:1603-1606
Scutchfield FD and Keck CW. Principles of Public Health Practice. Albany NY; Delmar; 1997.
University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. "The Invisible Safety Net: Part 1"--a CDC-funded video describing public health and its core functions. Seattle WA; 1994. (To view and hear this video clip you will need a sound card on your computer and the RealVideo player that is available for free to download by clicking on the image that follows.)
A brief self-assessment quiz is available by clicking on Quiz 1.
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