MPH Public Health (Web-based Learning) / Course details

This course unit is one of our blended options. The course will equip students to use the evidence-base to design, deliver and evaluate services which are accessible and appropriate, in order to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of patients and communities. Students choosing ‘Creating Equitable Services for Health and Wellbeing’ will need to be available for the face to face teaching block from 6pm Monday 27th March to 6pm Thursday 30th March (TBC).  This will involve live webinars, presentations and group work. It will also include a group presentation as the mid-term assignment. The face to face teaching can be accessed in person at the University of Manchester or online.

The course aims to enable students to develop skills to identify and understand the factors that make services hard to access and populations hard to reach. Students will use the evidence-base to evaluate and develop methods of engaging with seldom heard populations in the UK and international settings and demonstrate their application in real world settings to improve population health.

On completion of this unit, successful students will be able to:

• Describe and analyse  seldom heard  populations in a variety of settings and evaluate the factors that make populations hard to reach by services.
• Critically analyse the impact of seldom heard populations on public health.
• Examine the relationship between access to services and health inequalities. 
• Analyse the impact of socio-economic, cultural and other factors on access to services.
• Critically appraise current practices for engaging seldom heard populations. 
• Examine the role of Public, Patient and Professional involvement and engagement in developing accessible services.
• Develop evidence-based strategies for accessing and engaging seldom heard populations in a range of settings

This blended course involves working through the course notes provided online, linked references and other online sources of information including short videos. It also involves attending a 3- day teaching face to face component (starting with an introductory session on the evening of day 0 and ending after the afternoon session on day 3). During the face-to-face teaching we will use techniques designed to encourage students to work in groups, deliver presentations and be active learners and you will be expected to prepare for the face to face sessions by completing reflective study tasks. You will use self-reflection to help you think about the ideas discussed and the relevance to you everyday practice. Discussion boards will give you an opportunity to share your learning with fellow students. Generally those students who participate in discussion boards do better in their written assignments as this interaction with tutors and peers is an important part of the learning process.  We will use webinars and recorded interviews to give students access to experts in the field. You should work through the unit in a logical sequence using the calendar in Blackboard. It is essential you follow this guidance so that you are doing the same topic at the same time as your fellow students.

The face to face teaching will take place  from 6pm Monday 27th March to 6pm Thursday 30th March (TBC). Further details will be made available closer to the time.

Students will be provided with personalised feedback for their summative assignments, within 15 working days for the group presentation and 20 working days for final submission.

Further opportunities for formative feedback (on non-assessed work) will also be provided during a course unit.

To be confirmed.

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit leader, Annie Harrison, via email on annie.harrison@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme administrators via email on mph.admin@manchester.ac.uk.