Ecological Public Health Practice (10010.2)

This unit will expose students to the breadth of public health practice and practitioners through study of various public health workforce sectors and lectures from a broad range of public health practitioners drawn from health protection, health promotion and disease prevention. Both government and non-government sectors will be covered in this unit as will public health responsibilities undertaken by private sector workplaces. This unit will better prepare students for their placement in the third year unit 8577 Health Program Planning and Development and will broaden their understanding of the work options open to them as graduates of the Bachelor of Public Health.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Understand the breadth of options open to public health professionals;

2. Become familiar with working examples of public health practice;
3. Understand workplace expectations in relation to the variety of public health occupations studied; and
4. Critically analyse the work of the various public health professions and to understand the interrelationships that assist this work.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
2. UC graduates are global citizens - think globally about issues in their profession
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development

Skills development

In this unit, you will be exposed to a range of examples of public health practice, and develop an understanding of different employment options in public health, through examining the concept of ecological public health and what it means to be a public health practitioner in 2023. Ecological public health seeks to understand the systems that process good and poor health, to better understand where and how public health practitioners can intervene to support better health and wellbeing. An ecological public health perspective recognises that public health professionals may work in both 'traditional' occupations such as epidemiology, and non-traditional occupations such as studying social behaviours, wellbeing and broader policy development for wellbeing. This subject uses multiple case studies to demonstrate both the principles of systems thinking that underpin ecological public health, and to demonstrate the range of settings in which public health practitioners often work. Case studies examined in the course include disaster response, obesity, wellbeing budgeting and policy approaches, adaptation to climate change, and understanding and addressing the global nutrition transition.  Through these and other examples we will discuss the different roles of public health professionals, as well as giving a strong grounding in the theories of ecological public health and understanding the systems - ecological, built and natural environment, organisational, families and communities - that influence health outcomes, and which public health practitioners seek to influence. 

Prerequisites

None.

Corequisites

None.

Equivalent units

8574 Public Health Systems and Policy 2.

Assumed knowledge

None.