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Bachelor of Science in Public Health
Overview
One definition of public health is to prolong life and promote health through the organised efforts of society. Chief concerns are to monitor the health of a community by identifying health needs, implementing policies that promote health, evaluating health services and eliminating health disparities. As such, the scope of public health is huge. And as standards of living, income and access to public health services become more disparate, it is also one of the most crucial issues in the world today. Health protection functions include disease control - such as tuberculosis, HIV, communicable disease epidemiology and an immunization, ensuring that air is safe to breathe and water and food are safe to consume.
They also include preventing behaviours that lead to disease, averting injuries, managing chronic health conditions and advocating access to quality health care for all. This includes forming partnerships with service providers and directly providing individual health services where there is a need. Public health has become increasingly important on the political agenda, due to concerns about increasing levels of disease that take lives unnecessarily.
In addition to increasing lifestyle-related poor health (including obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, and high blood pressure), Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from diseases and illnesses that are closely related to poverty and lack of access to preventative health care. Poverty, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, pollution-related conditions, preventable diseases, and conflict-related illnesses are problems that we see all around the region today. This only emphasises the need for health care workers to have the relevant public health skills and knowledge in order to tackle public health problems. The Bachelor of Public Health is for those already working within the health sector who wish to specialise in public health - and equally for those who wish to enter this emerging, challenging and crucial field.
Graduates will gain:
- The ability to evaluate and analyse the challenges confronting public health and the provision of health services today.
- The knowledge to engage in policy debates about global and international health, and respond to the challenge of the widening health disparities that exist within communities and between countries.
- An understanding of the role public health practitioners play as advocates for change in public health, and of the strengths and weaknesses of differing approaches to health care systems.
- The ability to evaluate the quality and performance of health care systems and understand the various multi-agency approaches, along with their advantages and disadvantages.
Modules
Year one
- Business writing and communication skills
- Introduction to statistics
- Understanding public health
- The sociology of health and development
- Uganda’s health systems and policies
- Health communication - theory and practice
- Epidemiology and communicable diseases
- Environmental health
- Principles of management
- Fieldwork or placement
Year two
- Health care principles and organisation
- Health information systems
- Principles and practices of health promotion
- Understanding health policy
- Health services administration
- Ethics and integrity for health care professionals
- Epidemiology and biostatistics
- Health economics
- Population studies
- Reproductive health
- Health sciences research methods
- Fieldwork or placement
Year three
- Foundations of community health
- Effective leadership for the health sector
- Health in conflict and complex emergencies
- Primary health care and community health
- Health policy, politics and power
- Managing community health
- Food, nutrition and health
- Understanding global health
- Financial management for public health professionals
- Learning and teaching methodologies for health educators
- Fieldwork or placement
- Research Project
Career opportunities
Bachelor of Public Health graduates can work in a number of areas within the private and public sectors. In the public sector, they may work for a government health organisation, hospital, or within the community. Within the private sector, they may work as researchers for medical, pharmaceutical or health insurance companies. Within the educational field also, there is a call for public health researchers for universities.
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