Determinants of Community Health 1 - DOC 111Y
DOCH 1
Course Director Dr. Fran Scott
DOCH
Overall Course Director: Dr. Ian Johnson
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Course Activities
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Hours
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Lectures
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71
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Tutorials
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19
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Field Work
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38
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Self-study
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8
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TOTAL
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136
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COURSE
DESCRIPTION
The
Determinants of Community Health (DOCH) is the first of four DOCH courses that
span all four years of the undergraduate medical curriculum. The course
integrates the academic material of community health with field experiences.
The overall objective of the course is to teach students to be aware of the
social, physical and emotional needs of individual patients and communities as
a whole. The course consists of one half day per week for the year.
Most of the
academic material will be taught at the Medical Sciences Building. These
sessions will present the theory and knowledge required in advance of the field
placements. The field placements, voluntarily made available by community-based
agencies, provide student learning with the practical experiences and context
in which to apply the material learned in the lectures. For each set of field
placements, students will be expected to apply their knowledge and develop
skills in a field setting. Academy-based tutorial sessions will be held in
order to integrate these principles with the experiences.
First Term:
The first term focuses on three main areas. Students will learn about the
determinants of health, the principles of population health, and the structure
of the health care system in Canada. Students will go on field placements to
inner city schools in order to apply the principles of population health to
these school children. With respect to the health care system, students will
visit patients with the Community Care Access Centres who receive such services
in their home. Throughout both sets of placements, students will be expected to
understand the relationship between health and the social and physical
determinants of health.
Second
Term: The second term focuses on two main topics. Most of the term will be
devoted to learning and applying the principles of health promotion in a
community setting. Placements will be with a wide range of agencies who provide
both specialized services to a particular high needs group (for example,
services to seniors), or provide health promotion services to the population
for a particular area (for example, community health centres). In this term,
tutorials will also be provided in order to assist with the integration of
academic material with field experiences.
Occupational
and environmental health will also be addressed in term two. This four-week
module will describe the importance of occupational and environmental factors
on health and will provide an overview of these topics.
Throughout
the course, there will be an emphasis on professional behaviour. Students will
be expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with their role as
future physicians. The specifics of professional behaviour are listed in this
curriculum directory. Students are also expected to write a clear, concise
essay and make effective verbal presentations of selected topics to each other.
COURSE
OBJECTIVES
Table 1
provides a list of overall course objectives by major topic area. These major
topic areas will be continued through each year of the course and one part of
course will build on the previous year’s knowledge and skills. The skills
listed are those, which students should have at the end of this first year of
the course.
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Table 1. Main Topic Area
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Skills to be developed
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Determinants of Health
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a.
interpret social/physical/economic context and apply this to the patient and
the community;
b.
identify and interpret risk factors as they affect patients and the community
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Epidemiological Methods
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b.
interpret epidemiological findings in terms of the population and patients;
c.
identify community risks and needs.
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Community Diversity
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a.
describe diversity as it relates to community health;
b. apply
the principles of social justice;
c. have
self awareness of diversity and its implications for the health of a
community.
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Health Care System
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a. recognize
the changing nature of the health care system;
b. assess
and discuss patient and community needs in the face of changes to the health
care system;
c.
appreciate the need to use resources efficiently.
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Professionalism
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a. learn
and practice professional codes and ethics;
b.
recognize when to seek advice and assistance;
recognize
the complexity of various physician roles (e.g. listener, advocate, healer,
etc.) and the correct application of each.
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Multiprofessionalism
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a.
appreciate the concept of health care team and be able to collaborate
effectively with other professionals;
b.
communicate effectively in essay writing and in oral presentations;
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Health Promotion, Health Protection, Disease Prevention
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a.
understand health promotion, health protection and disease prevention
strategies;
b. be able
to identify how these strategies are applied in the community.
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Occupational and Environmental Health
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a.
describe the importance of occupation and environment on health;
b.
recognize the different roles of physicians in addressing occupational and
environmental health issues.
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EVALUATION
DOCH 1 is a credit / no-credit course. Students must pass each
component of the course in order to receive credit for the course.
Passing marks for the components are as follows.
For the December
examination, students must achieve at least 60% to pass. For all
other sections, each evaluation item will be marked on a pass/fail
basis and students must pass 70% of the items. Failure to pass one
component may require the student to complete a remediation program.
Since marks have to be generated for academic awards, the following
distribution of marks is provided
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Presentation on Field Visits in Term 1 (November, 2009 and
January, 2010)
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20%
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Mid-year examination (January, 2010)
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25%
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Essay that integrates knowledge from the health promotion,
health care system, and population health modules April, 2010).
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30%
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Final Exam (May, 2010)
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25%
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Professionalism (based on entire year’s performance)*
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Credit/non-credit
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TOTAL
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100%
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·
Students must be aware that since professionalism is central to
the practice of medicine, students must pass this component of the course in
order to receive credit for the course. Students must also appreciate that
students must pass each component of the course. Failure to pass one component
(e.g. health protection component) of the course may require students to do
remedial work in that one content area.
TEXTS
For this
course, the text entitled “Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Canada” (by
Chandrakant P. Shah, 5th edition, Excelsior Press, 2003) will be the required
text. Students will be responsible for the selected readings from this book, as
cited in the course syllabus. Students should note that the entire content of
this book will be covered over the four years of the Determinants of Community
Health course.
There will
be additional readings required for the module on health promotion. These
readings will come from a variety of sources including web-sites on the
Internet.