The Evolution of Public Health Education and Training in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The United Kingdom has a long and evolving history of public health education. From the initiation of formal standardised training for Medical Officers for Health in the early 1900s, to the current national public health training programme, public health education has adapted to the changing contexts of public health practice. Whilst the profession was originally only a medical specialty, subsequent recognition of the skills and contribution of the wider public health workforce has led to changes in professional specialist training for public health,which is now open to non-medical applicants. This well-established professional training scheme allows the formal accreditation of competence in a broad range of public health skills. The academic component of public health training is provided by a rapidly growing number of postgraduate courses. Once confined to the UK's first school of public health, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a handful of British Universities, the current 60 or so courses across the country are found in diverse university settings. Quality and standards in higher education are monitored by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education but there are no other professional accreditation schemes for postgraduate courses in public health nationally. Public health education and training continues to face challenges in the UK, notably the current government plans for major restructuring of the National Health Service (NHS) which threatens the loss of traditional NHS training placements and has created uncertainty around how professional training might be structured in the future.Whilst the long established tradition of public health education and more recent adoption of competency-based approaches to training gives some flexibility to meet these challenges, insight and innovative responses are required to ensure that public health education and training are not destabilised by these challenges. Revisions of the curricula of post graduate courses and the competencies required for professional accreditation along with provision of experience in the new locations where public health is to be practiced in the future will be 3 key to ensuring that public health professionals are ready to tackle the key issues that confront them.

Landscape Analysis of Public Health Jobs in India to Develop an Evidence-Based Public Health Curriculum

“…This also corroborates with the previous study by Cole et al (2011) where leadership and management along with other essential public health skills were considered necessary in order to respond to the present and upcoming public health challenges. Moreover, it was also highlighted in the literature that greater fluency in cost-effectiveness analyses, strong political skills including leadership and advocacy, the ability to work collaboratively across diverse regions and sectors will help in tackling issues related to pandemics in future [ 18 ], this is also consistent with the WHO roadmap for developing the public health workforce, which emphasizes on specific competencies required, identification of essential domains and move towards a cross-disciplinary response to population health challenges [ 19 ].…”

Evaluation of Public Health Education and Workforce Needs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…As the KSA is at its initial phase of developing public health services, emphasis is placed on the need for epidemiological skills. The workforce with specialty in epidemiology have skills to enable priority settings, service planning and evaluation of outcomes, have ability to develop and implement health improvement programs, surveillance of non-communicable disease and competent in proving advice on arrange of public health issues to local organizations and the public [8]. At present, only three government universities and one private university is providing master course in epidemiology along with hospital administration.…”

“…The school was funded privately major by the Rockfeller philanthropies, which in early 20th century helped to define public health profession [6,7]. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the first SPH in the United Kingdom (UK) was founded in 1924 with support of Rockfeller philanthropies [8]. However, for much of the 19th century, there was no concept of organized public health.…”

Nurse Leadership Practices in Primary Health Care: A Grounded Theory

“…The example was identified in a study conducted in the UK, the role of universities has been restricted to the theoretical support, with little involvement in the daily life of organizations, maintaining a distance from specific issues of public health and harming the development of contextualized and innovating practices. 17 Participants of this study pointed out a reduction of the nurse leadership actions to the supervision of tasks, to execute orders without proper reflection and apply to public policies, with the focus to reach the institutional goals. It should be warned that the nursing leadership orientated to perform tasks presents less significant relationships in health outcomes of patients.…”