AC7140 - Public Health Palliative Care: An Introduction

On this module you will learn using a variety of approaches to learning and teaching. Interactive lectures will introduce and develop key theories, concepts, and practices in public health palliative care, for example the interconnections between policies and the socio-economic determinants of dying, caregiving and grief and loss.

Lecture materials will be made available through technology enabled learning, namely the e-learning portal and Panopto, together with links to key materials, for example the Institute of Health Equity. In this module you will be able to focus on a particular topic area of dying, ageing, death, caregiving, or loss that interests you and that you might want to progress through to dissertation. Through directed and independent study, you will be encouraged to integrate contemporary public health theory, policy and practice as applied to these topic areas, present your findings to both peers and tutors and to engage in debates on key public health palliative care topics. These debates will occur in seminars, where you will form small cross-cultural and inter-professional collegiate groups which you will sustain throughout the Master of Public Health programme. Working in these small groups you will be able to present your findings and offer and receive critical peer review. Peer learning offers you opportunities to explain concepts to each other within a framework provided by staff, and to extend your learning through collaboration. In all these sessions, you will be guided by recognized senior members of the public health palliative care professional community.

You will be supported by the module leads and tutors who teach on the module. The academic staff who teach on the module have extensive experience of working in public health and palliative care settings (separately and in combined settings). Contact details for all academic and administrative team members are available in the module handbook on the e-learning portal.

Electronic teaching and learning materials are provided and updated on the e-learning portal. This includes module handbooks, assessment information, PowerPoint presentations used in class, reading lists and relevant web links. The University libraries offer an extensive collection of material, both hard copy and electronic, access to international databases and training in information retrieval. In addition, a variety of study skills related help guides and online videos can be found on the library Skills Plus site.

If you are an international student you will also have access to an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) module to help you further develop English language academic writing and study skills.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will demonstrate a systematic understanding of fundamental public health palliative care concepts and the process of critically evaluating them at a deeper level.
2. You will learn how to critically analyse
the interconnecting links between political, social, economic, biological, and environmental determinants of dying, caregiving, and grief and loss and explore underpinning discourses.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. You will explore public health policy and practice issues in the key areas of community development, social ecology and end-of-life literacy.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

4. You will develop self-awareness of new knowledge gained from both national and global public health palliative care contexts.
5. You will be encouraged to reflect on your communication skills when working with peers from a variety of ethnic and cultural contexts.

Formative assessment
You will be asked to write a 1000 word outline of your final summative essay. This will be
submitted electronically by ESAF and feedback will be given by ESAF and verbally in a tutorial. The formative assessment will assess your developing critical writing skills and developing public health knowledge base. With further development this can inform your summative essay.

This summative module consists of two components and students are required to pass both components to pass the module overall.

Component 1 consists of a 2000 word essay
reviewing a palliative care related social challenge (comprising 70% weighting of the assessment)
Module learning outcomes:
KU: 1,2
PVA: 4

Component 2 consists of an individual oral presentation (comprising 30% weighting of the assessment).
Module learning outcomes:
IPSA: 3
PVA: 5

The essay and presentation slides will be submitted via ESAF and feedback will be given by ESAF.

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This module offers you the opportunity to develop an understanding of the role of public health ideas and practices within the context of palliative and end-of-life care. Most people think of palliative and end of life care as being a short event in hospice, hospital, or nursing homes. In reality, living with a life-limiting illness can take months or even years and has a range of medical, social, and psychological challenges associated with this period of life. Furthermore, caregivers live with similar challenges as they care for their loved one in these circumstances. Grief, and later bereavement, may last a lifetime leaving a pattern of medical, social, and psychological challenges and health risks. A broad range of public health theories, concepts, and practices that are fundamental to public health policy and practice for palliative and end-of-life care in national and international contexts will be introduced. You will learn about the interconnection between public health problems (e.g. loneliness, depression, lost work/jobs or school days, suicide or premature death) and their association with poor supports or continuity of care from civic organisations such as workplaces, schools, or faith groups.

You will learn (1) from the UK’s first public health programme in palliative care; from (2) some of the most senior and well-known academic and clinical authorities in this field; and (3) from a training emphasis on key practice and policy methods known to make a difference to public health and palliative care outcomes.