Evidence Based Health Program Planning

HPA 2322/EDUC 2107 (Fall) linked to HPA 2990 (Spring)

Monday 5:30-8:10 p.m.Trees Hall 166

Dr. Carl I. Fertman, PhD, MBA, MCHES

Associate Professor, School of Education, Department Health and Physical Activity

156 Trees Hall

Office: 412-648-7191

Fax: 412-648-7198

E-mail:

Office hours: By appointment

Course description

Two term (Fall and Spring) team based course designing health promotion programs at local large, medium, and small organizations. The course presents students an opportunity to design a real health promotion program that has the potential to impact their career trajectory. Students are encouraged to seize the opportunity with enthusiasm. To maximize the opportunity students need to be flexible and demonstrate initiative to travel to the organizational site to meet according to staff schedules.

•Plan to come to the first class knowing your schedule flexibility as we consider teams and projects. We use a modified executive course format with potential alternative times for team meetings other than class time (Monday 5:30 to 8:10 PM).

•Tentatively two team meetings (not class meetings) are scheduled at the sites. Team meetingswith Dr. Fertman focus on the design as well as the final presentation (October and November).

•Tentatively team meetings at the sites are the 4th week of September and 3st week of October (at sites with organization staff).

•HPA 2322 (Fall) is linked to HPA 2990 (Spring). Students continue with Dr. Fertman in the spring term (HPA 2990) to refine and disseminate the projects.

•Fall projects (PowerPoints) and Spring products (Magazines) can be viewed on Dr. Fertman’s webpage under the class project tab:

Health promotion programs proposed in the 1980s to address many of the health-related problems of children and young people were designed to take advantage of the pivotal position of schools in reaching children and families by combining - in an integrated, systemic manner - health education, health promotion and disease prevention, access to health-related services at the school site and advocacy to change local and national policy. Today health promotion programs are used in schools, community health organizations, businesses, colleges, universities, hospitals, and government settings. The programs focus on nutrition, physical health services, physical education and activity, health education, environment, and behavioral health to improve health, educational, and work outcomes for individuals and reduce overall health care costs by emphasizing health promotion, problem prevention, easy access to programs, services and care, advocacy to change local and national policy, and health equity.

In this course, students will learn:

1. / Working as a team member how to write and present apromotion program plan, implementation,and evaluation.
2. / Application of health theories and health promotion programmodels to create evidence-based health promotion programs.
3. / Program strategies to promote health equity.
4. / Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on health care in the United States

Methods of Instruction

Working with the professor,as a team member you will prepare a health promotion program plan to guide how an organization can promote the health of a priority population. You will work directly with an organizational resource person and be required to meet face to face to with the resource person throughout the term. The developed product will be potentially implemented in the spring with a budget of $5000.00

A team based writing intense course with students producing multiple drafts of a document through a process of writing, review, and redrafting as sections are added as the course progresses. The instructor utilizes a variety of teaching strategies: lectures, discussions, small group interaction, email, and presentations. Each class session reviews previous plan drafts and presents next plan section. The course concludes with a stakeholder presentation. A course goalis implementation of selected plans in the subsequent school semesters (e.g. winter, summer, fall).

Required Text for both Fall and Spring terms:

Fertman, C. (2015). Workplace Health Promotion Program Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. ISBN: 978-1-118-66942-6

Required Reading

Kania, J. & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective Impact: Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved from

McDonald, P.A., Mecklenburg, R.S., & Martin, L.A. (2015). The employer-led health care revolution. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2009). Beyond health care: New directions to a healthier America. Retrieved from

Simon, P.A. & Fielding, J.E (2006). Public health and business: a partnership that makes cents. Health Affairs. Retrieved from

Required Software:

You will be producing a health promotion program product using the software package – Publisher. It’s part of the standard Microsoft Office package:

The University of Pittsburgh provides training videos. Here is a link to the 2016 Publisher Essentials training Lynda Publisher Videos

Resources:

Glanz, K. (2008). Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice. Hoboken, NJ. : Jossey-Bass. .

Fertman, C. I., & Allensworth, D.D. (2010). Health promotion programs: From theory to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

National Cancer Society. (2005) Theory at a glance: A guide for health promotion practice. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from

The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare Video

This video published by the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the basic changes in the way Americans will get healthcare coverage and what it will cost starting in 2014. These changes are both for the individual and for the employer. The video covers a variety of issues that an employer insured person faces to those who are currently uninsured or may need to gain coverage.

Team membership expectations

The course is product-driven requiring team member participation. You are working with the professor to develop and deliver a program for potential implementation. Team meetings with the professor and independent of the professor occur throughout the semester. Weekly team meetings outside of class are expected. In-person or web-based (e.g. Google Docs chat, web conferencing, Skype, Facebook chat, FaceTime) meetings are at the teams’ discretion and based on teams’ technical skills. At least twice during the semester, team members will schedule and meet with their resource person. Scheduling and meeting require assertion and flexibility by team members. Team members will rotate in-class discussion as team leaders (i.e. reporting, receiving and giving feedback, sharing learnings with other teams, creative problem solving). All team members are expected to prepare and present as part of the stakeholder presentations.

Course requirements and evaluation:

  • Health Promotion Program Plan(100%): The plan is written and revised throughout the course with a final presentation. Working as a member of a team, you will work on this plan throughout the entire semester and will receive feedback on your work at each stage of the plan. The plan is developed for a specific priority population and organization (i.e. worksite, school, community agency). All plan drafts are emailed to the professor, read and returned in class with suggested revisions. The course culminates with a presentation of plans to the university, community and school stakeholders and a supporting stakeholder resource document.

Disability resources and services

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890 [(412) 383-7355 for TTY], as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.

Academic integrity

A student has the obligation to exhibit honesty and to respect the ethical standards of the profession in carrying out his or her academic assignments consistent with the Student Code of Conduct. These guidelines are available for download at the school site. Please see the Associate Dean for Student Affairs regarding any issues that you may have related to these guidelines. For more information please call 412-648-1006.

Departmental of Health and Physical Activity Grievance Procedure.

If a student feels that they have been treated unfairly by the instructor with regard to their grade or other aspects of their course participation there are a series of steps that should be taken in an attempt to resolve this matter. These include the following:

  1. The student should first inform the instructor of the course of the issue in an attempt to resolve this matter. If the course is taught by a Teaching Assistant, Graduate Student, or Part-Time instructor, their faculty supervisor should also be informed of this matter. The student should bring this issue to the attention of the instructor in a timely matter and should maintain a record of interactions that occurred with the instructor regarding the matter in question. The course instructor should take necessary steps to address the concern raised by the student in a timely matter and should maintain a record of the interactions that occurred with the student regarding this matter.
  1. If, after reasonable attempts to resolve the matter, the matter is not resolved in a manner that is deemed to be acceptable to the student, the student retains the right to file a grievance. This grievance is to be filed with the Department Chair in the form of a written document that can be submitted via email or campus mail. This document should include the following:
  2. Student’s name
  3. Student contact information (email, address, telephone number)
  4. Information on the course for which the grievance applies (course title, course number, instructor name).
  5. A copy of the course syllabus that was provided to the student by the instructor
  6. Detailed description of the grievance and additional information the student feels is pertinent to this matter.

After receiving this information the Department Chair will inform the student if additional information is needed, as appropriate will discuss this matter with the student and the instructor, and will issue a decision in a timely manner.

  1. If the student is not willing to accept the decision of the Department Chair, the student will be informed that they can request an additional review of this matter through the Office of the Dean of the School of Education. If the student decides to pursue this, the student should contact the Associate Dean for Student Affairs & Certification in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh.

1