Key Area 5: Health improvement

This area of practice focuses on promoting the health of populations by influencing lifestyle and socio-economic, physical and cultural environment (including sustainable development) and health education directed towards populations, communities and individuals. It involves a theoretical and practical understanding of health improvement in order to work with, and possibly direct, health improvement specialists.

 

Learning experiences

By the end of phase 1 trainees would be expected to have acquired a firm knowledge base and be able to engage in critical debate with informed colleagues on health improvement.

By the end of phase 2 trainees have started working to apply this knowledge to improve the health of local populations including working in teams to analyse the need for health improvement, plan health improvement activities, implement and communicate those plans.

By the end of phase 3 trainees would be involved in increasingly complex health improvement activities, including community development activity, work with other professionals and understanding barriers to health improvement measures.

Potential vehicles for the demonstration of this competence area include:

  • Briefings for boards, committees, colleagues on health improvement issues
  • Proposals (business cases) for health improvement activities
  • Reports and evaluations of health improvement activities showing ability to reflect on own contribution and relate practical experience to theory
  • Logs of joint projects undertaken (probably in assistant capacity) with health improvement specialists
  • Elements of Masters submissions
  • Peer reviewed publications

Potential settings for the demonstration of this competence area:

By the end of training trainees will be expected to have undertaken health improvement/community development work in both a health care setting, a community setting (which may be work led by non-health organisations such as local government) and in the context of health protection.

Trainees must demonstrate their personal contribution to a specific programme or intervention, and how it is perceived by users and/or the press. They will have considered the health improvement needs of at least one marginalized or disadvantaged group.

For simpler health improvement activities (such as producing a limited local health improvement programme or writing a press release) it is to be expected that the trainee will have taken a lead role before completing training.

For others such as community development programmes or national policy development it is only expected that they have been sufficiently closely involved with the processes to understand what the issues are and how more experienced colleagues approach them.

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Links to Knowledge and Skills Framework

  • C4: Service Improvement

  • C6: Equality and Diversity

  • HWB 1: Promotion of Health and Wellbeing; Prevention of Adverse Effects on Health and Wellbeing

  • G5: Services and Project Management

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Knowledge Base

Principles and practice of health promotion and education including:

  • models of behavioural change,
  • definitions of health (physical, mental and social),
  • principles of sustainable development

Ethical and political issues underlying responsibility for health

Determinants of health, The prevention paradox

Role of regulation, legislation and fiscal measure in promotion of health

Evaluation of health education activities including:

  • outcomes,
  • appropriateness of different methods,
  • limitations and strengths of RCT type and qualitative approaches.

Risk reduction versus harm minimisation

Social marketing theory (diffusion of knowledge)

Theory and practice of community development.

  • Strengths and weakness of community development approaches.
  • Practical problems of community development.
  • Place of professional in community development.

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