SHN5132 - Promoting and Communicating Public Health Messages

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Evaluate the role of health professionals and nutrition education needs of target groups and to consider issues and problems from a variety of cultural perspectives.
Design and plan a programme of nutrition/health education for a target group.
Evaluate the role of the media in communicating food and health messages to a range of audiences.
Analyse and present scientific reports in suitable formats.
Evaluate a range of media output on food or health-related issues.

Content:

The role of public health nutritionists in the development of initiatives to address health issues such as diet and cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes mellitus, protecting children's health, the effects of low-income on nutrition.

Planning nutrition education programmes. The way in which issues relating to food, nutrition and health are portrayed by the media. Techniques in reporting scientific issues to the public.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Delivery will consist of lectures accompanied by workshops and seminars, where students plan and prepare for the health event. Additional seminars are for assessment support. There are hours allocated to e-moderated e-activities with formative feedback. However, it is anticipated that these online socialisation activities will lead to students using the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) independently for peer assisted learning. Individual tutorials are available for assessment support.

Lectures
Contact hours: 14
Intended group size: 65

Workshops,br> Contact hours: 14
Intended group size: 15 to 20

Seminars
Contact hours: 12
Intended Group size: 65

Guided independent study
Hours: 160

Further details relating to assessment
The focus of the module is on how to run a successful health promotion event, linking theory and policy to practice in the community. The class plan a health promotion day at the University, with each stall at an event run by a group of students and focused on a theme (e.g. the benefits of healthy eating/exercise/cancer prevention, etc.) The students plan, run and evaluate the class event. There is a presenation about the plans from each group (3-5 minutes per individual team member). The students write individual reports about their activity, reflecting on their work for the event and lessons they have learned for working on future health promotion campaigns or initiatives.