Explaining the expectations of the health system staff from the Bachelor's in Public Health and its adaptation with the public health curriculum.

Abstract

Objective: Public health experts have diverse roles in the health system therefore, they should acquire the necessary abilities to play a Multidisciplinary. Now after 9 years of the approval of the educational program in this field, and Implementation the health transformation plan the roles and responsibilities of health service providers have changed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to clarify the expectations of health system employees from public health experts and to adapt the obtained concepts to the public health curriculum. Method and Material: The current research is a qualitative study with a content analysis conventional method. The participants were 33 health system staff, who were purposively invited to participation in the study and taking into account the maximum variation in demographic characteristics. Data were collected using semi-structured individual interviews until theoretical saturation was reached and analyzed simultaneously. MAXQDA version 2020 software was used to manage qualitative data analysis. Results: The four themes and subcategories related to each include Responding to the needs of society (Adapting to the changes and society's needs, the need to adapt the curriculum to the needs of the society, increasing health literacy and empowering the society), Empowerment to provide community-based services (Empowerment of social factors affecting health, Obtain communication skills, strengthening work skills in the field), Strengthening and developing basic skills (acquiring entrepreneurial skills, skill in producing and evaluating educational content, developing personal and social skills) and Strengthening professional ethics. (Respecting the rights of clients, the adhere to professional obligations) were extracted as the expectations of health system practitioners from public health graduates. Also, based on the expectations raised from the point of view of the health system practitioners, the chapters and units of the public health bachelor's curriculum have deficiencies that make it necessary to revise and revise the curriculum of this field. Conclusion: Responsiveness to the needs of society, learning skills to provide community-based services and adherence to ethics were among the most important expectations of health system practitioners from public health graduates. Considering the deficiencies in the topics and units of the public health bachelor's program in relation to the expectations obtained from the perspective of health system practitioners; And in order to respond to the new health challenges and also to maintain the position of the public health field, we are forced to make fundamental changes. Policy makers of the field and board members of the public health field in Iran can focus on the findings of the present study as the basis for revising the curriculum of the field so that the competencies of the graduates and their role in promoting the health of the society are more visible.