BSc Public Health (on campus)

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The Catherine Chisholm is applicable to students from selected countries for this course. Find out more details on the scholarship page .

The Literature Review Project unit will support you in preparing for and writing a literature review. In this unit you will complete a public health literature review project of your choice in a country of your choosing. Evidence-based practice is a large part of public health practice and there will be times when it will be necessary to synthesise findings from a range of literature and communicate your findings with others. This unit is dedicated to developing and practicing the range of skills and knowledge required to write a literature review.

This unit aims to build a knowledge base on the development of a public health project that demonstrates all the principles of public health, health promotion, health protection, global health and healthcare management in a student selected topic.
The Unit will develop skills for reviewing public health evidence and literature to enable the coherent communication of findings. A literature review requires a range of skills and in this unit, we will discuss why and how to attend to the preparation of a review. For example, we will practice developing a research question, we will revisit locating and identifying relevant studies along with exploring critical appraisal and approaches to writing up a review and synthesising evidence. 
The skills and knowledge developed during this unit are transferable across all the programme units, most specifically preparing you for the Independent Study on Global Health that you will complete in year 3. 
 

Syllabus

• Reflect on the purpose and process of a literature review in a public health context.
• Formulate a public health research question for a literature review.
• Locate and identify appropriate and relevant public health literature.
• Apply critical appraisal to literature.
• Synthesise findings from the literature.
• Coherently communicate findings from literature in response to a public health research question. 

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 your 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

 

A1 Critically apply alternative approaches to maximise the potential benefit from scientific inquiry, to improve the way in which health care is provided, internationally.

A2 Critically appraise health and ill-health and understand the underlying principles behind inequalities in health, internationally.

B1 Identify and evaluate the evidence required for health policy and practice

C1 Find existing sources of evidence relevant to clinical and non-clinical health questions

C2 Be able to critically appraise common research designs and assess the published literature

D1 Reflect on public health principles and applications

A peer feedback activity will provide written feedback at the end of semester 1
Written feedback will be provided for the literature review. 
 

Aveyard, H. (2019). Doing a literature review in health and social care: a practical guide. Fourth edition. London: McGraw-Hill Education.

Greenhalgh, T. (2019). How to read a paper: the basics of evidence-based medicine and healthcare. Sixth edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Somerville, Margaret, K. Kumaran, and Rob Anderson. Public Health and Epidemiology at a Glance . Second edition. Chichester, [England: Wiley Blackwell, 2016. Print.]

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.