Public Health

Improving public health, underpinned by the evidence-based approach, requires continuous development of the key determinants of health, disease, and wellbeing. This module will provide you with opportunities to reinforce your understanding of key concepts associated with the complex influences on human health and disease, delving into the multifactorial causes of diseases affecting public health. It explores the biological, environmental, social, and behavioural factors contributing to disease onset and progression. Emphasising a holistic understanding, the module integrates epidemiological studies, public health policies, and emerging global health challenges. The course encourages critical analysis of current research and case studies, fostering skills in identifying disease patterns and risk factors. You will be offered an opportunity to learn to design effective prevention strategies, considering the complex interplay of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental determinants. This module will support aspiring public health professionals, contributing to their growing expertise in tackling diverse health issues in varied populations.

This module provides students with opportunities to develop a global perspective on public health, emphasising the diverse public health topics in developing countries in relation to maternal and child health, nutrition, prevalence of major communicable and infectious diseases and increasing health inequalities. This module also provides an insight into the historic roots of public health to the contemporary development, looks at influences upon health outcomes and healthcare services and particular public health challenges as they relate to pandemics, climate change and conflicts in the global context and considers the economic and social dimensions of these challenges and examining the impact of gender, religion, and culture on health. This module also looks at the roles played by different agencies and stakeholders in addressing global health concerns and is grounded in key international frameworks, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This module offers a rich learning experience, featuring guest speakers with practical expertise to deepen understanding of real-world applications in public health. Collaborative partnerships with organisations also provide hands-on experiences, allowing students to put theoretical concepts into practice.

This Epidemiology and Research Methods module provides the student with an introduction to the principles and key characteristics of primary and secondary research in public health.  Research in this area helps determine population and measure inequalities which informs demand for health care, use and resources.  Before moving onto how to undertake research, the student will learn to interpret and critique existing studies.

The module covers the foundations of epidemiological research and provides an overview of different statistical measures, sources of data and study designs drawing on real-life examples. It also teaches the interpretation of results of epidemiological studies and highlights data interpretation issues.

The student is introduced to participatory / action research in public health. Consideration is given to developing research questions and appropriate data collection techniques.  Handling and reporting both qualitative and quantitative data robustly is taught and rehearsed.  The role of the researcher in participatory /action research is explored. 

The content of this module will be enriched by using relevant case studies in public health, guest speakers with knowledge of the field, practical sessions, peer learning, opportunities for discussion and small group work.

This module explicitly addresses students’ personal and/or professional development with a view to enhancing competence for service improvement in a rapidly changing health and healthcare environment. By building an in-depth awareness of their own preferences, values and behaviours, they will learn to exercise influence across a wide range of situations in public health, leading teams, engaging staff, expanding social capital and communicating with diverse stakeholder groups all in an ethical and responsible manner.   Students are inspired to reflect critically upon their individual learning needs as well as their organisations’ practices, to appraise and apply concepts from the literature on leadership and strategic management, to issues of relevance for their role, organisation and overall programme of study.

This module examines a variety of issues in the field of health promotion so you can see the ways that health promotion and education can be used to help populations. You will explore a range of factors that influence the health of individuals and groups, and learn about how to use relevant theories, models and approaches of health promotion and health education to reduce inequalities. Students will learn about the importance of assessment and applying appropriate strategies rather than on fragmented intervention measures.  Students will develop a working knowledge tailored to addressing non-communicable diseases through engagement with activities on the module with practical application.

This is an introductory module to health protection in the overall function of public health. This area of practice focuses on the protection of the public’s health from communicable and environmental hazards by the application of a range of methods including hazard identification, risk assessment and the promotion and implementation of appropriate interventions to reduce risk and promote health. Students will be introduced to the key basic concepts and principles of health protection as well as gain insights into some of the key communicable diseases, environmental hazards, outbreaks, surveillance systems and the inter-relationship between the protection of public health and the improvement of public health through various strategies.

The dissertation is the culmination of a student's studies on the programme. This is demonstrated through an independent investigation in the field of public health. It allows an aspect of the student’s practice to be examined through research in significant depth, and the findings of the study to be communicated effectively in scholarly writing, building on their learning over the year(s) of study. Students are encouraged to disseminate their results more widely through conference presentation and publication in impactful peer review journals.  In this way students will make a significant contribution to the field.  The student is supported in this module by tutor supervision and through peer feedback.