Examine the responsibility of a nurse in public health

It is important that, as a nurse, you think critically about health and wellbeing and evaluate how your own values, beliefs, and attitudes regarding health inequalities may impact on your assumptions and approach to public health in everyday practice.

On this course, you’ll be encouraged to think about the meaning of health and consider holistic, medical, and social approaches to it.

Understand different models of health and wellbeing

You’ll explore different health models, critiquing the medical model of health, and exploring the social model and the ‘salutogenic’ approach to health.

You’ll have the chance to define what wellbeing means in practice, and understand why it matters in the context of health promotion and social reform.

Identify why health inequalities exist

As a nurse, it’s important to bear in mind that not everyone has equal access to healthcare.

Alongside health experts at Coventry, you’ll learn why health inequalities between rich and poor persist, exploring both social and behavioural factors.

Finally, you’ll look at how we can tackle these health inequalities, including examining the distribution of power and resources in society.

This course is designed for experienced nurses wanting or needing to extend their understanding of how nurses can act as promoters of health.

Syllabus

Week 1
Health and wellbeing
- Health as value
  This week we will think critically about the complex and contested nature of the terms "health" and "wellbeing" and the challenges and implications this may create for public health practice.
- How should health be defined?
  ‘Health’ throughout history has been the subject of endless debate. It has been theorised and analysed, for example, within the disciplines of medicine, psychology, sociology, policy, politics and anthropology.
- Models of health
  Now that you have explored the World Health Organisation definition of health, in this section we examine some professional models of, or approaches to defining, health.
- Health and wellbeing
  In this section we shall think about the term wellbeing. Public health is concerned with improving health and wellbeing but how can wellbeing be defined?
- End of the week
  In this section we review and reflect on what has been covered this week and revist the Big Question.
Week 2
Inequalities in health
- Welcome
  The unequal distribution of health and wellbeing is an important concern for societies, governments and public health across the world and this week we will think about why they exist and what can be done to reduce them.
- Introduction to health inequality and health equity
  In this section we will start to think about concepts of health inequality and health equity.
- Explaining why health inequalities exist
  There is much research and numerous debate investigating explanations for the existence of health inequalities. There is no one answer for their existence and this makes reducing health inequalities a complex and challenging task.
- Reducing health inequalities
  Having considered a number of explanations for the existence of health inequalities we go on to look at how we might tackle them.
- End of the week
  Review and reflect on what you have covered this week and find out what you will be learning about next week.

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Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Evaluate critically the contribution of lay, official and professional accounts of health as approaches to promoting public health
Discuss the importance of wellbeing to the public health agenda
Develop a critical understanding of the possible explanations for the causes of health inequalities
Assess the role of the nurse in working for health equity

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for experienced nurses wanting or needing to extend their understanding of how nurses can act as promoters of health.

Who developed the course?

Coventry University

Coventry secured 5 QS Stars for Teaching and Online Learning in the QS World University Ranking 2020 and has received No. 1 in the world for Massive Open Online Courses in MoocLab’s World University Ranking 2021.

Established
1992
Location
Coventry

About this ExpertTrack

Explore how nurses can assess community health needs, and analyse public health theories to lead public health promotion.

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