Teaching and Learning strategies employed at the University of Edinburgh consist of a variety of different methods appropriate to the programme aims. The graduate attributes listed above are met through a teaching and learning framework. Each course will use a combination of teaching methods that allows knowledge and skills to be conveyed in the most accessible form.
Core Course 1 : Global Health Challenges An Introduction (Online Distance Learning)
Semester 1 September-December
Course code: GMED11101
This course is divided into three sections, the first section looks at the factors that destroy health – these well-identified health challenges such as a) the shifting global burdens of diseases with non communicable diseases creating double and triple burdens on top of infectious diseases such as HIV, and neglected tropical diseases b) drought and famine where the essentials of life are removed, and c) humanitarian emergencies including war and natural disasters. The course will use a series of expert talking heads to draw attention to the fact that health is more than the absence of disease, good health requires an environment where well-being flourishes, where hope for the future is based in a just, secure and safe environment, where families, communities and individuals can develop to their full potential. This second section looks at the nature of the double edge swords in health such as extraordinary population growth in many countries, the shifting global food industry, industrialisation and multiple capacity for movement. These swords contain the potential to improve health or to destroy health depending on how they are managed. Rapid, and unplanned urbanisation, the cycles and traps of poverty, the lack of food security, the scarcity of water, the unpredictable changes in weather, and the lack of secure sources of energy all can and are changing the health of the world. This section will encourage students to critically appraise case studies and journal articles and Authorized reports.
Key to the course is an exploration of the effects of these challenges on different communities and the ways in which communities are tackling problems, and developing solutions and new approaches. Themes include innovations through technology, through community development approaches including faith approaches, energy, food, water, consumption, population and growth — and the relationships between them. Students will be encouraged in this section to learn through media involvement, through interview and through practical case work and case note gathering.
Participants will gain an understanding of the big global health challenges such as disease, poverty, war, emergencies, famine and drought, and the factors that drive these challenges. But alongside understanding these factors participants will start to understand the complexities of health, and of the drivers that can improve and destroy health and the innovations that are being developed, and those that are being re-discovered which will change the shape of health for the better.
This course will introduce some of the key global health challenges of the 21st century. It will explore their drivers, and their impact and traditional and innovative ways of tackling health problems. The course will introduce key concepts, tools and approaches to understanding the complexity of the challenges and their impacts and will utilise an array of case studies to explore pertinent issues. The Course will link closely with other courses and other experts in the field throughout the University. .
On completion of this course participants will be able to :
- Understand the major global challenges affecting the health of the world's population
- Be cognisant of the principles and practice of global health and understand the reasons for, consequences of and strategies to tackle the global disease burden.
- Understand how health is affected, impacted, and determined by non health phenomena
- Have a critical awareness of current global health policy and practice issues, and the systems and structures that determine how and why decisions are made
Course 2 & 3 Maternal Health & New Born and Child Health (Online Distance Learning)
Semester 2 January – March
Course codes: GMED11103 EMND11028
A special series on Maternal and New Born and Child Health - case studies of health challenges of the 21st century. The course is divided into two parts, the first part focussing on maternal health and the second on child health
As a special case study course it aims to familiarise students with the main causes and underlying determinants of maternal and child morbidity and mortality, exploring the different physical, economic, environmental, social, and cultural barriers and risks to good maternal and child health. The birth of a child constantly connects the past with the future, yet this most essential, inspirational and fundamental activity is also one of the most dangerous. Of all the global health challenges it is the challenge of reducing maternal and child mortality and improving health for mothers that is proving most stubborn to tackle. It represents an unparalleled global injustice and inequity
Course 2a Maternal health Worldwide, on average, approximately 1500 women die daily from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. This amounts to more than half a million deaths annually, with the majority occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This course aims to familiarise students with the main causes and underlying determinants of maternal morbidity and mortality. The key interventions to address these problems, approaches to implementation, and barriers to success will be examined.
Course 2b New Born and Child health The purpose of this course is to promote an appreciation of the risk factors and diseases resulting in high childhood mortality. More than 70 per cent of almost 11 million child deaths every year are attributable to six causes: diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth; under-nutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide. This course aims to familiarise students with these causes and their underlying determinants, and provide a good understanding of how these problems could be and are being addressed.
These two courses will explore a fundamental theme in global health: the worrying knowledge that the world knows what to do to prevent maternal and child deaths, and it knows that what to do is neither costly or complicated, yet women and children still die.
The courses will also explore the key interventions that have been developed at international, national and local level to address this unacceptable burden of death and the different approaches to implementation of programmes to improve maternal and child health. Participants will gain and understanding of the causes, and the drivers of mortality recognising that mortality is not about just about disease but connected to almost every area of life such as transport, environment, economics, human rights abuse. Participants will leave having come face to face with the question of how the world allows such injustice to continue, and how every level practitioner regardless of their discipline can be part of the global battle to make a difference to mothers and children.
On completion of both of these courses you should be able:
- To understand the main causes of maternal deaths during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, and what interventions and approaches exist to tackle these
- To be familiar with the methods and challenges of maternal mortality measurement and the inequalities between and within countries
- To understand approaches and frameworks for monitoring and evaluating interventions from the preconception through to the postpartum period
- To understand the social determinants of maternal health and the importance of strong integrated health systems to improve maternal health
- To be familiar with the global health agenda for maternal and women and child health and targets (e.g. MDGs), strategies, policies and investments to drive progress
- To understand:
- the main causes of death in infants and children under 5, what preventative and treatment interventions exist to tackle these, and barriers to effective implementation
- nutritional and environmental factors, and the social determinants influencing infant and child health outcomes
- the inequalities in child health outcomes and the countries and groups of people within countries that are most severely affected
- the process and impact of natural and artificial acquired immunity in relation to childhood diseases and their severity
- newborn and child health measurement concepts and methods, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks
Core Course 3 Health inequities and the social determinants of health (Online Distance Learning)
Semester 2 January – March
Course code: PGSP11329
Inequalities or disparities in the health of different population groups are seen both within and between countries. The term $health inequities denotes differences in the health status of groups occupying unequal positions in society; such inequities can be seen across multiple axes including gender, ethnicity/race, area and socioeconomic position. This course aims to demonstrate the extent of inequalities in health, to explore the underlying determinants of health and health inequalities, and to consider policy responses to health inequities. It expands on theories explaining how health inequities arise, including behavioural/cultural, psychosocial, material and lifecourse approaches, and investigates the role of government and the potential impact of economic, social and health policy in creating or reducing health inequities. Different explanatory paradigms and their implications for policy intervention will be discussed in relation to the health status of various population subgroups. Teaching across the 10 weeks will involve online lectures, journal clubs and critique of published papers.
Themes covered throughout the ten weeks include
Health inequities and the social determinants of health: introduction and overview
Social inequalities in health: structural and life-course perspectives
Reducing inequalities in health $ú what are the fundamental policy problems?
The welfare system as a determinant of health
Gender and health
Ethnicity/race and health
Place and health
Evidence and policy in relation to health inequalities and the social determinants of health
The policy experience: strategies for reducing health inequalities, and why they have not worked
Policy development and the health inequalities agenda in a global context
At the completion of this course participants will be able to
- Analyse the range of factors that influence health
- Critically interpret information on inequalities in health
- Examine contemporary debates regarding the causes of inequalities in health, and distinguish conceptually between health inequalities and health inequities
- Explore the extent of health inequities within and between countries
- Engage with theories accounting for the relationship between health inequities and broader inequalities in society
- Critically examine policy approaches to economic and social policy and the implications for the distribution of health resources within society
- Critically examine the impact that aspects of public policy have on the extent of health inequities in society
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