Assessment of graduate public health education in Nepal and perceived needs of faculty and students.
Background: Despite the large body of evidence suggesting that effective public health infrastructure is vital to improving the health status of populations, many universities in developing countries offer minimal opportunities for graduate training in public health. In Nepal, for example, only two...
| Publicado en: | Human Resources for Health Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=88013646&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 88013646 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 14784491 1CPZ jtl: Human Resources for Health issn: 14784491 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2013 vid: 11 iid: 1 pid: 24147 pub: BioMed Central artinfo: ui: 88013646 88013646 NLM23621945 10.1186/1478-4491-11-16 NLM23621945 88013646 ppf: 1 ppct: 12 formats: tig: atl: Assessment of graduate public health education in Nepal and perceived needs of faculty and students. aug: au: Mahat, Agya Bezruchka, Stephen A. Gonzales, Virginia Connell, Frederick A. affil: Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA sug: ab: Background: Despite the large body of evidence suggesting that effective public health infrastructure is vital to improving the health status of populations, many universities in developing countries offer minimal opportunities for graduate training in public health. In Nepal, for example, only two institutions currently offer a graduate public health degree. Both institutions confer only a general Masters in Public Health (MPH), and together produce 30 graduates per year. The objective of this assessment was to identify challenges in graduate public health education in Nepal, and explore ways to address these challenges.Methods: The assessment included in-person school visits and data collection through semi-structured in-depth interviews with primary stakeholders of Nepal's public health academic sector. The 72 participants included faculty, students, alumni, and leaders of institutions that offered MPH programs, and the leadership of one government-funded institution that is currently developing an MPH program. Data were analyzed through content analysis to identify major themes.Results: Six themes characterizing the challenges of expanding and improving graduate public health training were identified: 1) a shortage of trained public health faculty, with consequent reliance on the internet to compensate for inadequate teaching resources; 2) teaching/learning cultures and bureaucratic traditions that are not optimal for graduate education; 3) within-institution dominance of clinical medicine over public health; 4) a desire for practice-oriented, contextually relevant training opportunities; 5) a demand for degree options in public health specialties (for example, epidemiology); and 6) a strong interest in international academic collaboration.Conclusion: Despite an enormous need for trained public health professionals, Nepal's educational institutions face barriers to developing effective graduate programs. Overcoming these barriers will require: 1) increasing the investment in public health education and 2) improving the academic environment of educational institutions. Long term, committed academic collaborations with international universities may be a realistic way to: 1) redress immediate inadequacies in resources, including teachers; 2) encourage learning environments that promote inquiry, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking; and 3) support development of the in-country capacity of local institutions to produce a cadre of competent, well-trained public health practitioners, researchers, teachers, and leaders. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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