Comments on: What's in a Name?

By: wcissell

wcissell — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:02:08 +0000

My previous statement lost a phrase from the third sentence. That sentence should have read: It was common to hear discussions among leaders of our discipline about where along the path of an emerging profession our health education was.

By: wcissell

wcissell — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:58:36 +0000

When I entered the field of health education in the 1960s, it was somewhat daunting to describe our discipline. It was common to hear discussions among the leaders of our discipline. All that has changed during the past 30 years. Now that we have identified our seven areas of responsibility, established a certification process and can cite an SOC, I have no difficulty in stating what a health educator does. Health education has emerged into a full blown profession.

By: slbrown

slbrown — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:24:36 +0000

I imagine some of you have had similar experiences when being introduced. When asked what field I am in, I used to say simply Health Education. This was followed by blank looks or questions about P.E. Now, I always throw in the words “Public Health”, which usually avoids the aforementioned reaction.

By: wcissell

wcissell — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:07:32 +0000

Health education was defined by the role delineation processes at both the entry-level and the graduate-level and articulated through the CUP process. Health education has a standard occupation code (SOC) through the US Department of Labor. Prospects for changing the identity of our professional field are slim to none.

By the way, there have been other terms used as alternatives to health education. Health science was popular with faculty and graduates of the school of public health at UC Berkeley. Lots of academic departments that prepare professional health educators use this identity. Health studies is another identity used by some academic departments that prepare professional health educators; and ,of course, there is the infamous combination of health and physical education or physical education and health, as the UT Austin program was called when I taught there in the late 1970s.

Health promotion was initially popularized by Canadians and became the bastard child of health education in the USA when it was substituted for health education to assure that a congressional bill would go to the committee addressing public health rather than education. While health education was used in the title of the Bureau of Health Education when it was established within the Office of Smoking and Health in 1974, health promotion was used in the title of the Office of Health Information and Promotion when it was established within the Office of in Assistant Secretary of Health in 1978.

By: aversniknowak

aversniknowak — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:15:24 +0000

To further the conversation…

CHALLENGE #1:
According to the definitions above, a public health educator is focused on public health, not private health. As such, how would it make sense for a “public” health educator to work in private settings such as worksites, hospitals, churches, etc.? Wouldn’t public health educators be limited to public sectors?

CHALLENGE #2:
The traditional definition of community given above seems limiting. It does not address the idea that community might involve more than that…an interdependence, a sense of belonging, connectedness, and/or some shared similarity or purpose. If we limit our understanding of community to the traditional definition requiring geographic location, could/should online “communities” really be considered communities?

By: watsonpho

watsonpho — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:30:10 +0000

Here Here…. One more vote for Public Health Education

T Dub