St. Lawrence University Electronic Learning Environment: All courses

Course categories:

Programme Description

Uganda and many other developing countries are adversely affected by a wide range of public health problems. These problems result in an unnecessarily high rate of mortality and morbidity due to preventable causes. Generally, there is low awareness and practice of public and primary health care. Health delivery systems are focused mainly on curative, rather than primary health care. This situation results partly from the low number of well-trained public health officers.

The Diploma programme in Public Health will take two years and will provide training that will equip students with the knowledge and skills to address relevant public health concerns in the community. Graduates from the programme will be equipped with appropriate skills and knowledge to identify public health problems, design solutions to those problems, and plan and execute appropriate public health interventions.

The programme will help in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals concerning health, and the WHO and Uganda Vision 2040 objectives of ensuring affordable and accessible health services for all.

Programme Rationale/ Justification

Public Health and Primary Health Care is of concern to many developing countries, including Uganda. Inadequate public health maintenance and inspection of public health services has serious health consequences. Most of the existing health services in Uganda and many other developing countries are focused on curative services. Such services are offered after illness and deterioration in health has set in. Curative services are therefore relatively expensive, as they have to address the cure, rehabilitation and management of those who are ill. On the other hand, public health services focus mainly on primary health care, which involves the prevention of disease at individual and community level in the first place. Primary health care is much cheaper to implement.

Whereas there is a massive demand for public health services, there are limited opportunities for training Public Health professionals in the country. The Diploma in Public Health Programme is designed to enhance the national capacity for public and primary health care systems.

Programme Duration.

The Diploma in Public Health will take two years.

Programme Objectives

The objectives of this programme are to:

i. Equip the students with knowledge and skills disease prevention.

ii. Train the students with skills in health promotion, prevention and health education.

iii. Teach the students the concepts and science of health protection and improvement of health of people and their communities.

iv. Prepare students for lifelong learning in areas of promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases