Academic:  Jane Thomas

Librarians:

SALT Team:  Matthew Allen

Health protection is a core element of Public Health Practice, but it is challenging to teach beyond standard theoretical delivery and assessment. The 15 CATS Masters level module was commissioned by Public Health Wales (part of NHS Wales) to raise the recognised theoretical and practice based competence of public health practitioners from across Wales. There was a very senior group of potential students, unable to be released in the usual study day format of an extended period.

The module was designed to be delivered intensively within a single working week with the students working long days. The first four days were delivered with teaching from academics (from two institutions) and colleagues from senior public health practice and policy to ensure all was up to date, research led and practice driven.

The assessment process then took the whole of the final day and consisted of a simulation of a public health outbreak requiring a health protection response. The day was split into a number of hour and half hour time slots to represent days in the progres of the outbreak with a clear narrative for the students to describe the events, such as new case notifications, trend analysis, resource mobilisation and communications.

Resources used in the assessment were specially produced and included information packs to ensure all the students were familiar with the nature of the infecting agent, mode of transmission and treatment options. A wall map of the geographical area was used to show suspected and confirmed cases, radial spread and key locations. Television and radio broadcasts were prepared to provide additional stimulation and mocked up newspaper front pages were also used to give key clues the students needed to pick up on to inform their actions within the group.

Critical to the teaching was the way individual students and the group as a whole were assessed in terms of contribution and performance. In the assessment room, with the students, were three examiners, two internal and one external, each with a specific role in the assessment. One internal introduced the assessment and delivered the additional resources as the assessment progressed. The other internal was the scribe for the group using the whiteboard to capture complex ideas and work the map. The external examiner took the overview monitoring management processes and key elements within it. Each examiner also took extensive notes linked to the students and the time slots.

One of the most striking aspects observed by the examiners was how well the students functioned not just as individuals but as a collective, “living” the simulation and adopting group roles, advocating and moderating.

At the end of a fast and demanding process, the students described the excitement, how they were “in the moment, forgot they were being assessed” and exhilarated. All in all the student evaluations were unanimously positive. This was a dynamic and innovative mode and method of delivery and assessment, delivered in response to a specific commission.