BSc Public Health (on campus) / Course details

This unit will explore what we mean by evidence based practice (EBP) and teach the skills required to find, appraise and use different types of evidence from the published literature. We will explore the importance of EBP in public health practice and learn how it improves population health and wellbeing. 

The unit aims to: develop the students’ basic understanding of evidence based practice, including how to find the evidence, how to appraise the evidence and how to use the evidence.

• What is EBP and how does it improve population health and wellbeing? 
• Identifying Public Health issues 
• What are some important ethical considerations in evidence-based public health research? 
• Evaluating evidence – are some forms of evidence are more reliable than others? 
• What are the steps involved in conducting a literature search? 
• An introduction to different types of study design e.g. case-control studies, cohort studies and randomised controlled trials 
• Practical application of EBP in the real world- barriers to implementation of EBP and examples of implementation in real-world settings

On-campus students only:

Academic engagement includes lectures, seminars, workshops and other face to face activities. To achieve the intended learning outcomes for this course unit, we have created a range of activities. Your course unit leads and teaching team will support you including access to the Student Development Programme including peer-support (PASS) and the Programme Director Seminar Series. We will consult with students to identify any additional needs and further academic engagement activities will be provided. Assessments, preparation for assessments, reading time and independent study are also included within you timetabled activities.

Distance/blended learning students only:

Students on this mode of study will have the opportunity to study synchronously with the on-campus students and asynchronously via recorded sessions and online resources. 

• Students will receive written feedback from tutors on the written assignment
• Students will receive written feedback from peers via discussion board tasks on using EBP in public health  
• Students will receive automated feedback when they complete the online quizzes

Somerville, M., Kumaran, K. and Anderson, R. (2016). Public health and epidemiology at a glance. Second edition. Chichester, England: Wiley Blackwell. 

CASP (2021). CASP - Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. [online] CASP - Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. Available at: https://casp-uk.net/. 

Fink, A. Evidence-Based Public Health Practice. Los Angeles, SAGE, 2016. Print 

Gray, M. Evidence-based Healthcare and Public Health: How to Make Decisions about Health Services and Public Health. Third edition.London, Elsevier, 2009. Print. 

NICE (2018). Principles for putting evidence-based guidance into practice. [online] . Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/Media/Default/About/what-we-do/Into-practice/Principles-for-putting-evidence-based-guidance-into-practice.pdf

Rychetnik L, Hawe P, Waters E, et al. A glossary for evidence-based public health. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2004;58:538-545. Available at: https://jech.bmj.com/content/58/7/538 

Titler MG. The Evidence for Evidence-Based Practice Implementation. In: Hughes RG.. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2008. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2659/

For every 20 course unit credits we expect students to work for around 200 hours. . This amount is only a guidance and individual study time will vary.