1st Edition

Problem-Based Learning for Health Improvement Practical Public Health for Every Professional

By John Cornell, Frada Eskin Copyright 2003

    Problem-based Learning for Health Improvement provides a new insight into public health perspectives. Illustrated throughout with practical examples that can easily be incorporated into daily practice, this book highlights, and if used effectively will help develop, the knowledge and skills required to tackle the daily challenges concerning public health facing all health professionals. Individual chapters explore the ten areas of public health competence outlined by the Faculty of Public Health Medicine. Doctors, nurses, social workers and all those involved in promoting public health will find this book invaluable. ‘There is a positive context for public health practice in the United Kingdom which is unparalleled. This is a climate which demands a positive and proactive response from the public health community. This new text is an important part of the endeavour to `make it happen'. Practical, problem-orientated and insightful, each chapter addresses one of the ten areas of public health competency defined by the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians.

    Surveillance and assessment of the population's health and well-being. Promoting and protecting the health of the population. Towards evidence-based healthcare: practical issues in getting research into practice. Working across agencies that impact on health and healthcare. Developing health programmes and services, reducing inequalities. Building a vision and changing the world: developing and implementing policy and strategy. Working with and for communities to improve health and well-being. Strategic leadership for health. Research methods and their application in public health practice. A day in the life of a public health practitioner.

    Biography

    John Cornell qualified in Manchester in 19 75. After training in surgery, he trained in general practice and became a principal in Sheffield in 1984. He entered public health in 1994 and was appointed Consultant in Public Health Medicine in Doncaster in 1998. He was appointed as Director of Public Health to Doncaster Central Primary Care Trust (PCT) in 2002. His main areas of activity are implementing locally the Coronary Heart Disease National Framework, Caldicott implementation in primary care and developing the public health functions of the PCT. Frada Eskin qualified in medicine at the University of Sheffield in 1960. She chose to make her medical career in the field of public health. After being appointed to various posts in public health in Sheffield and in Derbyshire, she left public health practice in 1975 to run a Department of Health-funded National Continuing Education Unit based in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the medical school at Manchester University, where she spent the next 14 years as director of the unit. During this time she developed expertise in management education and personal development, which she was able to integrate into public health medicine training. She returned to work in the NHS in 1989 as consultant in public health medicine at Yorkshire Health and then as Deputy Director of Public Health for Sheffield Health Authority, from where she retired in July 2001. She has published widely on a variety of public health topics, management and personal development, including two books and a substantial number of papers.