PUB-510: Foundations of public health course introduces students to the broad field of public health, professional roles, and the basic principles of disease prevention and health promotion among communities and populations. Moreover, students who are studying this pub-510: foundations of public health course also examine historical trends in the field, the 10 Essential Public Health Services, and how public health services are designed and delivered within the public health infrastructure. Additionally, this pub-510: foundations of public health also introduce students to the upstream causes of morbidity and mortality across the life span and how the public health system in the United States addresses these causes.
Table of Contents
What are the foundations of public health?
Foundations of public health is a collection of online modules that provide students with foundational knowledge in the profession and science of public health and factors related to public health.
Definitions of public health.
Public health refers to the practice of demonstration and research that prevents disease, prolongs life, and promotes health by public and private organizations, communities, individuals, and society at large.
Additionally, public health may refer to the science and systems designed to create community, statewide and nationwide conditions that promote health, prevent disease, and encourage healthy behaviors across the entire population.
Some of the public health efforts that improve population health include:
- Educating the public about healthier choices/ Promoting healthy lifestyles.
- Promoting physical activity and fitness
- Preventing disease outbreaks and the spread of infectious diseases.
- Ensuring safe food and water in communities
- Preparing for an emergency, preventing injury, treating water with fluoride.
What is the key purpose of public health?
The key purpose of public health is to achieve and sustain healthy populations and environments. Thus, we must be able to understand the role behavior and social factors play and how they contribute to public health solutions and policies in order to reach this goal. The social and behavioral health sciences have a crucial role in public health policies and decisions, as the work professionals in this field do are focused on identifying and analyzing the social determinants and behavioral risk factors associated with any number of public health issues. Afterward, they use this information to better understand how to promote and achieve healthy behaviors within certain communities and populations.
What are the main principles of public health?
There are several values that support public health practice such as equity, social justice, participation, efficiency, effectiveness, acceptability, affordability, and accessibility.
Justice.
Justice refers to the balancing between burden and benefit. You should remember that for justice to be observed, there should be a fair distribution of the two. Justice assumes that people can meet their responsibilities and be held accountable fairly uniformly across the community. However, not everyone is as capable of being accountable as others. Children and the weak or those enduring illnesses are often in this class. Additionally, those who are regularly discriminated against by their societies are also classified into this class. In these cases, we are looking to a deeper value which is equity.
Equity.
Equity is the idea that everyone should have some stake in the things that make life meaningful.
Participation.
Participation is a critical aspect of both social justice and equitable processes. Often, people need to have some say in what is happening to them if they have a stake in their families, communities, and societies. Thus, participation is about having a voice to shape decisions, implementations, and evaluations that influence our lives. However, participation can vary in its manner and its potential outcomes. The following are the types of participation:
Inform.
Provide the public with balanced and objective information to assist them in understanding the problems, alternatives, opportunities, and solutions.
Consult.
Obtain public feedback on analysis, alternatives, and decisions.
Involve.
This involves working directly with the public throughout the process. This enables understanding and consideration of public concerns and aspirations.
Collaborate.
Collaborate with the public in each aspect of the decision including the development of alternatives and the identification of the preferred solutions.
Empower.
Place final decision-making in the hands of citizens.
