The 2010 BC Public Health Summer School
Event Summary
A summer school organized by the Public Health Association of BC in partnership with other organizations titled “Supporting Community Change from a Population Health Promotion Perspective” took place on July 26th and 27th 2010. A total of 68 participants and 20 event facilitators and presenters participated in the event. The event was held in three main locations: the University of British Columbia (32 participants); University of Northern British Columbia (16 participants); and University of Victoria (9 participants). There were also two participants from a satellite location in Terrace BC.
History & Partners
One of the sessions at the PHABC Annual Conference in November 2009 focused on strengthening partnerships across public health programs in BC. The idea of a PHABC Summer School was formed to provide an opportunity for students and faculty from across the province to come together.
Dr. Irv Rootman, the Co-Chair of the PHABC Capacity Building Committee, developed plans for the 2010 event by creating a Summer School Committee. Dr. Rootman asked contacts from various public health organizations and schools participate (Committee Members are listed in Appendix A). Initial conference calls took place in December 2009 and February 2010. Over time, the Committee grew to include 30 members and conference calls continued each month.
In March, a part-time Project Coordinator was hired by PHABC to help organize the logistics and planning of the event. To better understand the needs of public health practitioners an online survey was created and sent out to the membership of PHABC. This survey provided a foundation for decisions made by the Committee (full report available upon request). Many of the survey respondents expressed interest in a 2010 Summer School. The topic favoured by respondents was “Population Health Promotion.” Respondents also favoured a Summer School session early in the summer and requested a low cost model for the event.
Following the decision to focus on the topic of “Population Health Promotion” a Curriculum Development Sub-Committee was created. This Sub-Committee (Members listed in Appendix A) created an event Program and sought out Faculty for the event. Decisions regarding final logistics were made in a final meeting which included members from both the larger Committee and Sub-Committee.
Overall, the time between the “action oriented” Committee calls and the actual event was very short (ie. a matter of weeks prior to event announcement). The event was only possible due the hard work and tenacity of all the members involved. A sincere thanks to all those who helped plan, organize and execute the event. The Committee Members and event supporters came from a range of organizations. The 2010 Summer School project partners included:
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· Public Health Agency of Canada
· Canadian Cancer Society, British Columbia and Yukon Division
· Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
· Vancouver Island Health Authority
· Fraser Health Authority
· Interior Health Authority
· Northern Health Authority
· Provincial Health Services Authority
· University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC)
· University of British Columbia (UBC)
· University of Victoria (UVIC)
Simon Fraser University (SFU)
· BC Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport
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Activities & Agenda
Title
The Summer School was titled “Supporting Community Change from a Population Health Promotion Perspective.” This title was selected by the Summer School Committee Members to include both aspects of “community change” (and community capacity building) as well as “population health promotion.” However, the length of the title was not all that practical (or catchy) when sending out event initiations and information, often the title was shorted to “The 2010 BC Public Health Summer School.”
1 - Vancouver Site Participants
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Event Agenda
Feedback from the original survey requested that the Summer School focus on “skills” and be reflective of the “practice” of practitioners. The planning group also sought to give ample time for discussion and networking. A case study approach was suggested to provide practitioners with inspiring examples from across the Province. A list of about ten potential case studies was suggested, then criteria for selection were created and finally Committee Members discussed and decided on selected case studies. Three tool box sessions were selected to follow the objectives of the Summer School and be specific to certain skills and themes brought up in the survey and by Committee Members.
Dr. Irv Rootman and the Project Coordinator, Hannah Moffatt, developed a draft event agenda and presented ideas to the Curriculum Development Sub-Committee. Changes were made to reflect committee member ideas and logistics for the event. Dr. Rootman and committee members sought out contacts to find faculty that might be interested in presenting at the Summer School. Once presenters were confirmed the event agenda was finalized. The list of presenters is available in Appendix C; the final event agenda is available in Appendix B. An effort was made to engage all presenters and facilitators prior to the event. For the sessions with more than one presenter, at least one conference call allowed presenters to discuss their presentation and topics to be covered. Presenters were encouraged to check in with the Coordinator to review materials and slides prior to the event to avoid overlap and ensure continuity throughout the two days of sessions.
It was decided that at each of the event sites there would be presenters so that all sites had the opportunity to learn from someone in-person, rather than over videoconferencing. Each event site also had two event facilitators to help keep the discussion moving and on track. The facilitators (listed in Appendix C) were provided with some guiding discussion questions and a framework to review each of the case studies.
Goal & Objectives
The Committee Members decided on a broad goal and specific objectives for the Summer School based on the input from the original PHABC Summer School survey, experiences during recent public health events, and feedback from Committee Members and practitioners. The goals and objectives were presented to prospective participants to clarify and entice participation. Also, the presenters had the guiding statements to aid in the development of their presentations.
Goal: To provide an opportunity for public health practitioners to hone their skills in population health promotion with a particular emphasis on community change.
Objectives:
1. To become familiar with the theory and practice of community change in the context of population health promotion
2. Use a case study approach to become confident in the practice of promoting and enabling community change from a public health perspective.
Including an introduction to specific skills in:
(2a) Engaging your organization beyond public health (e.g., primary care, mental health, home care, etc.) and working with other levels of government (municipal, regional, etc)
(2b) Framing population health promotion (and community capacity building) for decision makers in your community
(2c) Using evaluation and measurement tools to assess the effectiveness/impact of population health promotion (and community capacity-building)
3. Learn how to practically apply skills to different community contexts (e.g., rural and remote)
The event “wiki”
Nancy Hall, a member of the Curriculum Development Sub-Committee, suggested a “wiki” to introduce participants, presenters, event facilitators prior to the event. The wiki was suggested as a way to build a community of practice surrounding the event and population health promotion in BC. Nancy had previous positive experience using a wiki for other educational events and offered to set the wiki up on a free online site. The PHABC Summer School Wiki is available at: http://phabcsummerschool.pbworks.com.
Event Logistics
A majority of the event logistics were organized by the Project Coordinator and staff of PHABC. The “Save the Date” event announcement went out to the PHABC listserv as soon possible; however not enough lead time prior to the event was indicated by many members of PHABC. The Summer School occurs at a time when planning around holidays and other event is crucial, a longer lead time would have been helpful. Following the initial conference calls with Committee members this event was pulled together relatively quickly.
Online registration for the event occurred on the PHABC website. The announcement was sent to the PHABC membership listserv on a number of occasions and was distributed in other community listservs (for example in the BC Communities Activity Ebrief). Participants were asked to register with an online form (gathering information with Name, Email, Telephone, Organization, Site participating) and made payments online. It would have been practical to also ask participants about food preferences and allergies. It may have also been constructive to ask participants about their background (ie students, practitioners etc) at this stage of the registration process. The actual registration process was organized by PHABC staff. There were some problems with the “Paypal” system reported; however, the helpfulness of PHABC staff was mentioned by respondents in the evaluation survey.
Three event locations were originally selected (the lower mainland, Vancouver Island and Northern BC). The Summer School Committee suggested three sites as to not “overextend” resources while also presenting options across the province. The available video technology for this event was explored extensively. The UBC Faculty of Medicine videoconference line was made available free of charge because of the event partnership with the Health Authorities.
There was some miscommunication about the sites available, many potential participants were disappointed to learn they could not call-in separately from their home or work computers. One group in Terrace had booked a PHSA videoconferencing room to attend the session, however, learned prior to the event that the video-feed was not compatible. Following a great deal of discussion and organization a new site at the Terrace Memorial Hospital was found with help from the UBC Faculty of Medicine videoconferencing group.
The Summer School Committee decided on a participant cost of $100 for PHABC members and $125 for non-members. The idea was to cover the costs of refreshments while also encouraging memberships. A few “lower cost” registrations were made available for participants that could only make one day of the event and for a few students who participated and asked specifically for a lower fee. It is interesting to note that at the time of registration a number of participants were not members of PHABC. The participants often paid the extra amount because their organizations were covering the cost of registration. No monetary awards or gifts were presented to facilitators or presenters following the event; however the fee for participation was waved.
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2 - Irv Rootman presenting
3 - Dan Reist presenting
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4 - Cathy Adair presenting
5 – Vancouver site, group discussion
Evaluation Survey Results
An online evaluation survey was sent to participants. The survey came online a week following the event; this was delayed due to summer holidays. A total of 25 participants completed the online survey, a relatively low response rate. A greater number of participants may have evaluated the event if the online registration had been made in person at the end of the event or available online immediately following the event. Of respondents, 64% of attended the session at UBC, 20% at UNBC and 16% at UVic.
Respondents were from a variety of fields, including administrators (21%), health educators (13%), physiotherapists (9%), physicians (9%), researchers (4%). Respondents were also from a variety of organizations (Table 1). The largest group of respondents were from BC Health Authorities. The majority of respondents (56%) have been involved in public health for less than 5 years; 36% for 5-20 years and 8% for more than 25 years.
Table 1: Employment settings of participants
Health Authority / Public Health Agency of Canada / Non-Governmental Organization / Private Sector / Academia / Student / Other40.00 % / 8.00 % / 12.00 % / 4.00 % / 16.00 % / 12.00% / 8.00%
Overall, the responding participants rated the event as positive. In an evaluation on a scale of 1-5, an average rating or 4.0 or more was given to all the event sessions. Respondents had positive comments, such as “Very knowledgeable, well prepared presentations and well informed discussions” and “Eye opening. Learned a lot. Excellent speakers.” Many positive comments were received about the presenters and material covered; especially the inclusion of regrets, mistakes and lessons learned. Two respondents felt presenters did not have time to go in-depth into topics. A few respondents suggested more case studies, and a broader variety of case studies (i.e. beyond nutrition and exercise to include stickier issues of poverty etc).
The overall quality of discussion during the event was rated as 4.04; the majority (84%) rating the discussion as either a 4 or 5. One participant noted that they felt their site discussion facilitators did too much of the talking. Participants positively commented on the use of the case study approach, framework and time for discussion. One respondent described disappointment in not having all presenters participate throughout the event to be involved and answer questions.
Overall, respondents also rated the event logistics as positive but had a number of suggestions. An overwhelming majority (96%) rated the online registration process as positive (either a 4 or 5). One participant noted how particularly helpful PHABC was throughout the registration process. Additionally, all respondents rated the use of videoconferencing technology as either a 4 or 5; one respondent noted they were “pleasantly surprised.” However, a few technical difficulties (speakers not in microphone) where noted by one respondent.
Respondents were thankful for the low cost of the event and enjoyed the event length (ie two day session). A number of respondents mentioned that the theatre style room did not lend to small group discussion. The quality of refreshments was rated the lowest of all logistic questions, averaging 3.60 with only two respondents rating the quality as ‘excellent’. A number of respondents noted that unhealthy food options were not appropriate and hypocritical. One suggestion was to provide the opportunity for participants to “opt-out” of food and beverage breaks.
Overall, respondents felt the Summer School achieved its goals and objectives (Table 2). However, not all respondents agreed each of the objectives were met. A few respondents reflected that potentially the objectives could not be met in the short time of the summer school or more time on specific objectives would have been useful.