About Uganda Martyrs University Bachelor of Public Health

The Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Health Promotion (BSc PHHP) course is designed for the graduates to be responsive to the public health and health promotion needs of individuals and communities and is guided by a set of core values and principles that underpin Public Health and Health Promotion practice. These include: a social-ecological model of health that takes into account the cultural, economic, and social determinants of health; a commitment to equity, civil society and social justice; a respect for cultural diversity and sensitivity; a dedication to sustainable development; and a participatory approach to engaging the populations in identifying needs, setting priorities, and planning, implementing, and evaluating the practical and feasible health promotion solutions to address the needs (The Galway Consensus, 2008).

Background

Health is a basic human need. It is fundamental to the successful functioning of individuals and of societies. Health Promotion aims to empower people to control their own health by gaining control over the underlying factors that influence health. The main determinants of health are people’s cultural, social, economic and environmental living conditions, and the social and personal behaviours that are strongly influenced by those conditions.

Rationale

Globally, there is a high disease burden of disease due to the high prevalence of preventable communicable and non-communicable diseases. Whereas the developed world has a higher prevalence of non-communigable diseases such as cancers, diabetes and hypertension, developing countries like Uganda have a persistently high burden of communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition to mention but a few. To make matters worse, now they have entered an epidemiologic transition in which non-communicable diseases are on the increase even before the communicable diseases are eliminated. It is estimated that non-communicable diseases will be the leading cause of mortality in developing countries by 2030. Ministry of Health (1997) through the first Uganda’s National Health Policy emphasised the importance of Public Health, Health Promotion and disease prevention approaches at all levels, however this policy is challenged by, among others, inadequacy of suitably qualified health professionals, especially public health cadres. Most of the current public health professionals hold Diplomas and certificates or Masters degrees in Public Health. Very few have any formal qualification in Health Promotion, and it is usally a Diploma or certificate.

Public Health training in most African Universities is only at postgraduate level (MPH). Between the MPH holders and Diploma holders, there is, therefore, a big gap in thinking, attitudes and readiness to operate at the community level where they are needed most. Those who have the necessary knowledge are very few, are usually not ready to work at lower levels and are not affordable to the community and local government levels. This renders it difficult to have enough public health professionals with relevant public health knowledge and skills to provide public health services to the community. Critical services like health needs assessment, health planning, health education on improved sanitation, safe water, food hygiene and safety are all attended to by less trained public health staff.

Due this created gap, there is strong demand for intermediate cadres of staff with the requisite knowledge and skills in Public Health and in Health Promotion, to be able to serve the needs of rural communities, district local governments at district and sub-county levels, community-based health-related projects, community health departments in health service providers e.g. hospitals and other health-related non-goverment organisations. Moreover, there is a growing realisation that many people who currently apply for and get enrolled onto MPH- level programmes in the country are not suitably prepared to handle the challenges of these courses. They lack sufficient basic exposure to concepts of public health and health promotion. Yet, the time allowed for such courses does not give them a chance to get sufficiently grounded in the theories and concepts therein. As a result, they study under extreme pressure and the quality of the graduates in less than optimal. In view of all the above, Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) starts this programme of BSc PHHP to contribute to bridging of the gaps highlighted above.

Aim and Goal of the Curriculum

The major aim of BSc PHHP programme is to prepare a public health workforce with skills and competences to exhibit practical and technical leadership in assessing the health needs of communities and individuals in the community, and in designing, implementing and evaluating appropriate and effective public health and health promotion interventions at all levels of society throughout the country.

The goals of the degree programme are to prepare professionals who will be able to:

Meet the public health and health promotion needs of different levels of governments, communities and public health agencies.

Meet the public health and health promotion needs of large and small organisations.

Be very competitive in the search for public health and health education/promotion jobs.

Pursue academic and practice careers in the fields of Public health, Health promotion and other health-related fields at graduate and post graduate levels.

Objectives of the Course

The graduates shall be able to:

Determine the health needs of the communities in which they work and the determinants of those health needs Increase public awareness on health determining behavioural, social and environmental conditions, and monitoring those conditions for their effects on health status.

Facilitate the organisation of communities, households and groups to take action on health determinants, through dedicated community development and empowerment.

Advocate to policy makers and decision makers to make internal resources (personnel, finances, material goods) more readily available to groups working on health determinants, whether or not these actions are undertaken in the name of health.

Leverage resources internal or external to households, communities, groups, local governments, organisations and institutions to address local health problems and improve health status

Actively and technically participate in joint programming and policy development work, locally, regionally and provincially, with those in the public, private and civil society sectors with a stake in health determinants.

Develop and advocate for policy options that influence health determinantsat all levels of government and organisations.

Summary of Competences

The graduates of the course shall be capable of:

Working collaboratively across disciplines, sectors, and partners with a view of promoting an integrated approach among all different programmes that target communities to enhance the impact and sustainability of public health and health promotion programs and policies.

Determining the effectiveness of health promotion programmes and policies, through the use of appropriate evaluation and research methods to support program improvements, sustainability, and dissemination.

Preparing and delivering appropriate written and verbal presentations and reports adapted to a wide range of different audiences and for a wide range of purposes.

Conducting health needs assessment in communities and systems, which leads to the identification and analysis of behavioural, cultural, social, environmental and organisational determinants that promote or compromise health. Designing and applying appropriate evidence-based, efficient, culturally-sensitive and ethical strategies and health interventions to address the identified health challenges, having appropriate goals and objectives

Appraising the health impact of national and local policies

Implementing health advocacy interventions with and on behalf of individuals and communities to generate actions that improve the health of the affected individuals and communities.

Managing the temporal, knowledge, human, material and financial resources leveraged or available at their disposal to effectively implement strategic and operational public health and health promotion interventions.

Course Units

The programme is run on the basis of course units with different credit units and contact hours. This weighting is based on the relative volume of workload and complexity of the course. One contact hour is equivalent to one hour

of lectures or two hours of tutorials or three hours of practicals. Each course is weighted and allocated the required number of contact hours as determined by the Faculty Board and approved by the Senate. A Credit Unit is the measure used to indicate the relative weight given to an individual course unit in relation to fulfilling the degree programme of study. One credit unit constitutes 15 contact hours.

About Uganda Martyrs University School of Medicine

Uganda Martyrs University School of Medicine Courses Offered

Uganda Martyrs University School of Medicine Entry Requirements

Uganda Martyrs University School of Medicine Registration

Uganda Martyrs University School of Medicine Grading System

Uganda Martyrs University Medical School Application Form

Uganda Martyrs University Bachelor of Public Health Courses Offered

Uganda Martyrs University Bachelor of Public Health Programme Outline

[button link=”https://ugfacts.net/list-medical-schools-uganda/” color=”orange”]List of Medical School in Uganda[/button]