Transforming health professionals into population health change agents
<em>Background</em>. With the recognition that professional education has not kept pace with the challenges facing the health and human service system, there has been a move to transformative education and learning professional development designed to expand the number of enlightened and...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2016-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Public Health Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.jphres.org/index.php/jphres/article/view/643 |
| _version_ | 1828082301013065728 |
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| author | Lucio Naccarella Iain Butterworth Timothy Moore |
| author_facet | Lucio Naccarella Iain Butterworth Timothy Moore |
| author_sort | Lucio Naccarella |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <em>Background</em>. With the recognition that professional education has not kept pace with the challenges facing the health and human service system, there has been a move to transformative education and learning professional development designed to expand the number of enlightened and empowered change agents with the competence to implement changes at an individual, organisation and systems level. <br /><em>Design and Methods.</em> Since 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria, Australia, in collaboration with The University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health, has delivered seven population health short courses aimed to catalyse participants’ transformation into population health change agents. This paper presents key learnings from a combination of evaluation data from six population health short courses using a transformative learning framework from a 2010 independent international commission for health professionals that was designed to support the goals of transformative and interdependent health professionals. Participatory realist evaluation approaches and qualitative methods were used. <br /><em>Results</em>. Evaluation findings reveal that there were mixed outcomes in facilitating participants’ implementation of population health approaches, and their transformation into population health agents upon their return to their workplaces. Core enablers, barriers and requirements, at individual, organisational and system levels influence the capability of participants to implement population health approaches. The iterative and systemic evolution of the population health short courses, from a one off event to a program of inter-dependent modules, demonstrates sustained commitment by the short course developers and organisers to the promotion of transformative population health learning outcomes. <br /><em>Conclusions</em>: To leverage this commitment, recognising that professional development is not an event but part of an ongoing transformative process, suggestions to further align recognition of population health professional development programs are presented. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:48:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a45430ba439945108d2760071ee6f95f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2279-9028 2279-9036 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:48:48Z |
| publishDate | 2016-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Public Health Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-a45430ba439945108d2760071ee6f95f2023-01-02T02:14:48ZengSAGE PublishingJournal of Public Health Research2279-90282279-90362016-04-015110.4081/jphr.2016.643140Transforming health professionals into population health change agentsLucio Naccarella0Iain Butterworth1Timothy Moore2Health Systems and Workforce Unit, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneEastern and Southern Metropolitan Health, Victorian Department of Health and Human ServicesNossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne<em>Background</em>. With the recognition that professional education has not kept pace with the challenges facing the health and human service system, there has been a move to transformative education and learning professional development designed to expand the number of enlightened and empowered change agents with the competence to implement changes at an individual, organisation and systems level. <br /><em>Design and Methods.</em> Since 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria, Australia, in collaboration with The University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health, has delivered seven population health short courses aimed to catalyse participants’ transformation into population health change agents. This paper presents key learnings from a combination of evaluation data from six population health short courses using a transformative learning framework from a 2010 independent international commission for health professionals that was designed to support the goals of transformative and interdependent health professionals. Participatory realist evaluation approaches and qualitative methods were used. <br /><em>Results</em>. Evaluation findings reveal that there were mixed outcomes in facilitating participants’ implementation of population health approaches, and their transformation into population health agents upon their return to their workplaces. Core enablers, barriers and requirements, at individual, organisational and system levels influence the capability of participants to implement population health approaches. The iterative and systemic evolution of the population health short courses, from a one off event to a program of inter-dependent modules, demonstrates sustained commitment by the short course developers and organisers to the promotion of transformative population health learning outcomes. <br /><em>Conclusions</em>: To leverage this commitment, recognising that professional development is not an event but part of an ongoing transformative process, suggestions to further align recognition of population health professional development programs are presented.http://www.jphres.org/index.php/jphres/article/view/643Professional developmentpopulation healthchange agentsevaluationhealth professional education |
| spellingShingle | Lucio Naccarella Iain Butterworth Timothy Moore Transforming health professionals into population health change agents Journal of Public Health Research Professional development population health change agents evaluation health professional education |
| title | Transforming health professionals into population health change agents |
| title_full | Transforming health professionals into population health change agents |
| title_fullStr | Transforming health professionals into population health change agents |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transforming health professionals into population health change agents |
| title_short | Transforming health professionals into population health change agents |
| title_sort | transforming health professionals into population health change agents |
| topic | Professional development population health change agents evaluation health professional education |
| url | http://www.jphres.org/index.php/jphres/article/view/643 |
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