Reflection On The Ppph And Mph Course

disapproval On The Ppph And Mph CourseMy life before the MPHI read been at the University of Liverpool for the past sixteen grades, starting as a BSc Microbiology student, then with my PhD on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), and finally counterfeiting as a look into associate on several clinical trials in Malawi, Africa and in Liverpool.I am present-day(prenominal)ly in Primary take and bring on reasonable undertaken a feasibility intervention study by NHS wellness flight simulators. Working on this study promoted me to reflect on my give work experience and identify any gaps in my association, which resulted in me applying as a business office- conviction student on the MPH menstruate. Because I tho had a contract to the summer of 2010, I was only able to demo for almost of the course, as a PGCert student. As a result, I have non d iodin the complete MPH, but only the five modules describe below.First Semester wellness SocietyQuantitative Research Methods I arcminute SemesterAn intro to Qualitative Research health EconomicsPolicy politics in cosmos healthI choose these vocalisationicular modules in relation to the gaps in my knowledge, except in the case of QRM I, which I truism as a refresher course. I would describe myself as a numeric researcher, who had truly little soft experience. Although on trials in Malawi and Liverpool, members of the police squad undertook some qualitative research that I managed on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, I had some judgement of the practicalities in projection this type of research but not in the theoretical background, methodology and analysis. Therefore, it was very all- all-important(a)(a) for me to do the qualitative slices of the course, as within my current occasion in Primary Care I will be to a greater extent hands on with qualitative research.As part of the NHS Health flight simulator feasibility study, the team looked at the wellness economics and its implications, in qui slingism with colleagues at the University of East Anglia therefore, it was valuable for me to do this module. In addition, as part of this study I looked at the history and development of the NHS Health flight simulator insurance insurance by the giving medication so I did the PPPH module to attend to me to put this research into context.So what would I say was my Public Health experience? Well to start with, I think I have worked on research topics of common health importance throughout my time at the University of Liverpool but I may not have formally seen it as the case. I can see this when I reflect on my previous experiences, starting with my PhD, where I studied STDs in Nigeria, as part of my time there we undertook some promotion of condoms within the local agrarian community. Also in Malawi, one project was on reproductive health issues and again as part of a team, we promoted the safe motherhood class. Moreover, in the last clinical trial in Malawi, the team was test ing an expertness of a Rotavirus vaccine against diarrhoeal disease, which because of that research has become part of the recommended existence Health Organisation vaccine schedule for babies. For that reason, although there has clearly been a unrestricted health agenda within my work but I did not see it, it was very important for me to undertake this course. In rove to supplement my previous knowledge within the theoretical basis of Public Health and learn some new practical ways to wait on when I am conducting future research.Public Health Policy staffOn of my reason for undertaking, this module was to understand how throng create public health form _or_ system of government, the impact of politics has in that, and finally how the implementation of the policy comes into being for ordinary spate. As a result, I came into the module with the aims of understanding the workings of the process of policy formation. Overall, I have implant the topics in the module very inte resting and motivating.As stated earlier, as part of my job I looked at the history and development of the NHS Health trainer policy with their role in helping people to have a sound life-style. But when I looked at the document trial for this policy I was ball over to see that the role of NHS Health Trainer unspoilt seemed to appear in the 2004 white paper Choosing Health Making healthy choices easier (1), without any supporting research evidence, or even case studies wake how this worked in a UK setting in that white paper. Nevertheless, it was still enshrined into authorities policy, which has resulted in people, all over the country, employed to be NHS Health trainers. Therefore, I hoped that the PPPH module would give me some acumen into how this happened.Consequently, in that context I found the readings and lectures for week two, on Public Health Policy a earlieri background to Policy Formulation and Development in the UK context very enlightening. In the lecture on W hat is policy, it was interesting that hear that a description of health policy described as anything the government does, making decisions and implementing actions that allocates a value and how they translate their policy-making vision to deliver outcomes desired qualifyings in the real creation. Also outlined were the various different models, which brought home to me the complexness in the development of policy, and the importance that policy should be evidence based.When I related this lecture back to my knowledge experience with NHS Health trainer policy, I could see that how it derived its origin, from the political idea of choice in influencing public behaviour to improve health and wellbeing. This idea was supported by one of the pre-lecture readings, where Mulgan (2010) stated that we know people care about their health and the get together of illness with their eachday choices, but they find it hard to adopt fitter behaviours, therefore how does the government hel p people to make to help people make the right choices for them (2). Therefore, it seems that the NHS Health trainer policy appears to be political intervention, designed to mop up gaps and strengthen other areas driven by the idea of having a healthy choice.In addition, I see how the government has not adopted the nudge attack to this policy, which soft and non-intrusive and preserves an individual freedom of choice in that you do not remove the mortified choice altogether. But, used the stewardship model, which sees government as having an active, positive role, in that it promotes health by providing information and advice, with NHS Health trainer programme to help people overcome unhealthy behaviours (3).I can see the NHS Health Trainers policy ticking all the right boxes, such as community involvement, not top down, and client wayed but the evidence base for this policy is weak, with the NHS Health Trainers Initiative website devoted to guidance notes and health trainer o nly. Up till now, recent publications on the main outcomes of the national and local reports for NHS Health Trainers Initiative of Health trainers have focussed on recruitment and prepare of Health trainers and analysis of service delivery but not client outcomes (45). Crucially, no studies have examined the effectiveness of Health Trainers at promoting heart-healthy lifestyles, with our work being only a feasibility study, which we have not in so far published. This seemed to me to be back to front way of doing it. barely, in reflection the lectures, in week 3, on Influencing Public Health Policy were interesting as, I am looking at to how my own work on Health trainers could have an impact on the current policy. These lectures brought home again, how complex the world of Policy and Politics is within Public Health. I can do on the experiences of the speakers, in week 3, in their roles as advocates for policy change from inside and outside the system. It is clear that policy c hange is not linear but follows a circular pattern within this circle therefore, as a researcher, I can contribute by increasing the knowledge base for this policy.I found researching for the debate, I was part of the team looking at the argument for the motion on the Marmot Report, gave me a greater insight into the difficulties of addressing the health problems in our society. One of the key points our team made, was that the way our current public health policy looks at tackling the symptoms rather than the root causes of health inequalities. Moreover, from my reading around in preparation for this work, the question arose as to how we do not address the real issues, which at the root of it is the political ideology of Neo-liberalism. Navarro (2007) pointed out that real problem is not absolute resources but the grade one has control over ones own life in every society (6). In this article, Navarro gave an example of this quoted below.An unskilled, unemployed, young black perso n biography in the ghetto area of Balti more(prenominal) has more resources (he or she is likely to have a car, a mobile phone, a TV, and more square feet per household and more kitchen equipment) than a middle-class professional in gold coast, Africa. If the whole world were honourable a single society, the Baltimore youth would be middle class and the Ghana professional would be poor. And yet, the first has a much shorter life forecast (45 divisions) than the second (62 years). How can that be, when the first has more resources than the second? (6)This created a effectual image, which brought home that message to me about how the inequalities affect our society. There has been a focus on the phenomenon of lifestyle drift, whereby governments start with a commitment to dealing with the wider well-disposed determinants of health but end up instigating narrow lifestyle interventions on individual behaviours, even where action at a governmental take may offer the greater chance of success, this can be seen in the NHS Health trainer policy.Even though I had to argue for the impossibility in implementing the recommendations of Marmot, I strongly believe that when making changes we get hold of to be part of a collective membership where we take decisions not just in the interest of an individual but also for the everyone as a whole. On the other hand, on a note of pessimism I was shocked as to how successive governments failure to act on the health inequalities reports prior to Marmot, such as the Black Report (1980), Acheson Report (1998) and Wanless Report (2004). Consequently, we need to understand the political determinants of health and act upon them, even if it seems risky and execrable to implement the changes needed.Has my perspective changed?As I have only through with(p) some modules of the MPH, I will reflect on the impact of these. However as it now seems I will be, continuing next year with the remaining modules, I expect these views to chan ge in the coming year as do the other modules. The question asks what affect this course has had my own understanding of and my future approach to public health. Well, as explained earlier, before undertaking this course I could see how my work has had elements of dealing with public health issues at the coalface, as it were in Africa and latterly in the UK, but I seemed unaware of them at the time. I think that is clearly one of the important changes to how I view public health from now on. Over the course of all the modules, I have seen very much the interconnectivity of all the disciplines in both developing the knowledge base for and creating public health policy itself.As I have trained as a three-figure scientist, very much grounded in the positivist view of society, I found the two qualitative modules very enlightening. One of the results from my study on the NHS Health trainer was how little people quest ford with the programme even though we recruited people into the stud y because of they had risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as obesity. A group of people who at the outset we thought would be an example group for the intervention. However, when looking at the pattern of behaviour in the duodecimal data at each stage of the study, a higher than regular proportion of this group did not take up our offer and engage with our Health trainers. Fortunately, in parallel to this research the team conducted qualitative interviews with some of the participants. Therefore, we were able to get some information on why we saw this affect, with the view coming out that some people were hoping that the LHTs would find a nutritional magic bullet but when faced with the reality that the programme only involved motivational support they disengaged. Therefore, as a proper(postnominal) example of a change in my practice in the future, I see the need to incorporate a mixed paradigm approach, quantitative and qualitative, to get the whole research picture. Therefore, in undertaking the two qualitative modules I know feel I have a unsloped understanding of the theory and practice to start adopting this as an effective approach to my research.