Main competences and skills to perform Essential Public Health Operations, offered by Schools of Public Health in four European countries: a short pilot report

Scientific creativity and innovation ability and its determinants among medical postgraduate students in Fujian province of China: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND

Graduate education is the main approach to training high-level innovative elites. With the expansion of the scale of graduate education in China, it has gradually emerged that the lack of innovation ability of graduate students is recognized as the primary problem in graduate education. How to comprehensively improve the quality of postgraduate teaching has become the core task of educational reform and development. However, data about the current cultivation and development of the innovative ability of graduate students in China is limited.

METHODS

A questionnaire survey was conducted among medical postgraduate students. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis methods were used to analyze the data to describe the current innovation ability in advanced medical education and potential influence factors.

RESULTS

A total of 1241 medical students were surveyed, according to the results of questionnaire data analysis. The proportion of subjects who participated in the College Student's Entrepreneurship and Innovation program or any other scientific research programs are fairly high which are 46.82% and 29.20% respectively. Most of the participants are observed with high levels of self-motivation and active learning and have good performance in creative thinking. However, only a small number of participants (16.6%) reported academic achievements such as publications. Most of the students are satisfied with the current scientific research environment and think that the current postgraduate training system is qualified for the cultivation of innovation ability, and expects the inclusion of course specialized in systemic medicine and medical informatics in the curricula. Multiple logistic regression results showed that among the factors studied, gender, medical specialties, and types of master's degrees are associated with cognition & skills, academic performance, and creativity.

CONCLUSIONS

It will be important to incorporate more techniques for creating and improving creativity in the curricula of the current postgraduate education, especially for courses such as systemic medicine and informatics. Guidance in earlier school life can stimulate creativity and an early introduction to scientific research work will facilitate innovative thinking and behavior. Scientific research programs such as the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training for the universities of PRC have been widely implemented in the undergraduate education system throughout the country. However, the training effectiveness of the current scientific research programs is worth improving.

The Role of European Schools and University Departments of Public Health in the 2020 COVID-19 Response, European Region, 2020

Objective: The main objective was to examine, how European Schools of Public Health (SPHs) responded to the COVID-19 pandemic through 2020, across the main activity domains of the SPHs. Methods: A cross-sectional survey based on an online questionnaire concerning the anti-COVID-19 activities from 1st March to 31st October 2020 of the 117 members of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER). The questionnaire asked about 33 sub-themes within the four main themes of teaching, health communication to the public, research, and consultancy/advice. Results: Fifty-nine SPHs (50%) completed the questionnaire. Seventy-nine per cent of participants were involved in COVID-19 related teaching; health communication to the public, 76%; research, 80%; consultancy/advice, 81%. Eight out of ten participants had been involved in all of the four main themes. Conclusion: The study demonstrated a substantial body of COVID-19 related work by SPHs in Europe, and an outstanding potential to deliver crucial knowledge and skills to support the governance and the public health systems necessary to combat COVID-19.

Sustaining success: aligning the public health workforce in South-Eastern Europe with strategic public health priorities

OBJECTIVES

To map out the Public Health Workforce (PHW) involved in successful public health interventions.

METHODS

We did a pilot assessment of human resources involved in successful interventions addressing public health challenges in the countries of South-Eastern Europe (SEE). High-level representatives of eight countries reported about success stories through the coaching by experts. During synthesizing qualitative data, experts applied triangulation by contacting additional sources of evidence and used the framework method in data analysis.

RESULTS

SEE countries tailored public health priorities towards social determinants, health equalities, and prevention of non-communicable diseases. A variety of organizations participated in achieving public health success. The same applies to the wide array of professions involved in the delivery of Essential Public Health Operations (EPHOs). Key enablers of the successful work of PHW were staff capacities, competences, interdisciplinary networking, productivity, and funding.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite diversity across countries, successful public health interventions have similar ingredients. Although PHW is aligned with the specific public health success, a productive interface between health and other sectors is crucial for rolling-out successful interventions.

Public health educational comprehensiveness: The strategic rationale in establishing networks among schools of public health

The establishment and continuing development of a sufficient and competent public health workforce is fundamental for the planning, implementation, evaluation, effect and ethical validity of public health strategies and policies and, thus, for the development of the population's health and the cost-effectiveness of health and public health systems and interventions. Professional public health strategy-making demands a background of a comprehensive multi-disciplinary curriculum including mutually, dynamically coherent competences - not least, competences in sociology and other behavioural sciences and their interaction with, for example, epidemiology, biostatistics, qualitative methods and health promotion and disease prevention. The size of schools and university departments of public health varies, and smaller entities may run into problems if seeking to meet the comprehensive curriculum challenge entirely by use of in-house resources. This commentary discusses the relevance and strength of establishing comprehensive curriculum development networks between schools and university departments of public health, as one means to meet the comprehensiveness challenge. This commentary attempts to consider a two-stage strategy to develop complete curricula at the bachelor and master's as well as PhD levels.

Blended learning is an effective strategy for acquiring competence in public health biostatistics

OBJECTIVES

We sought to determine whether blended learning is an effective strategy for acquiring competence in public health biostatistics.

METHODS

The trial was conducted with 69 Masters' students of public health attending the School of Public Health at University of Belgrade. Students were exposed to the traditional and blended learning styles. Blended learning included a combination of face-to-face and distance learning methodologies integrated into a single course. Curriculum development was guided by competencies as suggested by the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER). Teaching methods were compared according to the final competence score.

RESULTS

Forty-four students were enrolled in the traditional method of education delivery, and 25 to the blended learning format. Mean exam scores for the blended learning group were higher than for the on-site group for both the final statistics score (89.65 ± 6.93 vs. 78.21 ± 13.26; p < 0.001) and knowledge test score (35.89 ± 3.66 vs. 22.56 ± 7.12; p < 0.001), with estimated large effect size (d > 0.8).

CONCLUSIONS

A blended learning approach is an attractive and effective way of acquiring biostatistics competence for Masters of Public Health (MPH) graduate students.