The issue of public health deserves close attention for a number of reasons, the emergence of new health threats and the lack of health literacy among general audiences being key ones. Therefore, building the environment in which major threats to public health can be avoided must be deemed as one of the key priorities of healthcare practitioners nowadays (Hunting & Gleason, 2012). For this purpose, adhering to foundational and concentration-related competencies of a Master of Public Health is crucial since they help to focus on essential objectives and identify the strategies for addressing some of the current health concerns. As a result, a steep rise in the levels of health awareness, as well as the ability of target populations to manage their health concerns, can be expected.
MPH Foundational Competencies: Public Health Assessment and Policy Development
The process of evaluating a particular health issue is complex in its nature due to the necessity to embrace a vast array of factors defining public health. Nevertheless, public health assessment and the subsequent management of major concerns remain essential responsibilities of a health practitioner. Herein lies the significance of failing to determine nature and causes of a particular public health issue or define an appropriate way of handling it. The application of epidemiological methods, which constitutes an important part of the MPH foundational competencies, enables a healthcare practitioner to secure the well-being of a specific demographic and safeguard vulnerable populations (Hunting & Gleason, 2012). In addition, routine screenings for massive threats to the public health, such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, should be regarded as crucial to preventing diseases. Diagnosing and investigating a problem, as well as developing a coherent policy aimed at educating target audiences should also be deemed as some of the essential priorities of a healthcare provider. Therefore, a policy that could help to address the needs of a particular vulnerable population, such as people with disabilities, is needed.
CU MPH Concentration Competencies: Public Health Assessment and Policy Development
The ability to apply specific social and healthcare-related theories to managing corresponding issues is not to be underrated, either, when creating a comprehensive public health management program. Among the essential concentration competencies that play a big role in shaping a proper policy, one must mention the ability to focus on multiple dimensions of a public health policy. The identified skill is especially important in creating the setting in which a target demographic will feel comfortable. Thus, the opportunities for establishing a strong connection between a patient and a healthcare expert will be possible (Turnock, 2015). The identified step, in turn, will lead to a rise in the quality of program implementation since healthcare promoters will receive more detailed and timely feedback so that they can adjust the program respectively. As a result, culture- and patient-specific needs will be taken into account when introducing a particular audience to essential concepts of self-care.
In addition, the improvement in the quality of information processing will help a healthcare practitioner gather relevant data about patients’ cultural values, beliefs, and other aspects that may affect the quality of care. There is no need to stress that prejudices and stereotypes affect the efficacy of healthcare services to a considerable extent (Hunting & Gleason, 2012). For instance, patients may refuse from taking a certain medication or follow proposed guidelines due to the influence of their cultural beliefs or being pressured into a specific behavior by their family members. Therefore, it is the duty of a healthcare practitioner to ensure the provision of respective patient education and the use of proper information management tools.
Application of Public Health Assessment and Policy Development Essentials to Public Health Practice
Policy evaluation is a crucial stage of introducing changes to the realm of healthcare practice. An assessment of the policy implementation must start with the evaluation of its goals and the usefulness of the proposed change for target audiences. Furthermore, one must not forget about the issue of financial resources (Issel & Wells, 2017). Learning about the necessity to plan a policy budget and allocating available resources, particularly, financial assets is one of the crucial lessons that have been learned during the course. Indeed, with a tight focus on health-related needs of patients, one may overlook the issue of budgeting the program accordingly. However, it is imperative to create a financially sustainable approach that will help to handle the difficulties associated with significant expenses (Hunting & Gleason, 2012). For instance, in the scenario of catering to the health-related needs of children living in remote and impoverished areas, it will be necessary to take into account the salaries to be paid to healthcare practitioners, costs for technology required for accessing patients and their parents or legal guardians, expenses taken to transport the necessary inventory and medication, etc.
Conclusion
Creating a comprehensive public health policy that will allow improving the quality of care is an important step in addressing some of the recent threats to public health. Due to a combination of social, cultural, economic, and financial issues, some patients may fail to receive the required healthcare assistance. Therefore, a public health program must be built after a careful analysis of patients’ culture-specific characteristics, factors that affect their well-being, and capacities of the program in question. Thus, active promotion of health and patient education will become a reality.
References
Hunting, K. L., & Gleason, B. L. (2012). Essential case studies in public health: Putting public health into practice. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Issel, L. M., & Wells, R. (2017). Health program planning and evaluation (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Turnock, B. J. (2015). Essentials of public health (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.