‘The health education profession’ Articles
Written by hedir on 19 October 2009
Folks, Thanks to those who participated in today’s webinar “The Death of School Health Education“. (archived presentation)
You can view the draft of the memo by clicking here. Here are the questions and comments that were posed. We couldn’t answer them all, so feel free to comment on any that you deem important.
Maybe the problem is TOO MANY organizations?
Check out http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/your-money/15TEACH.html?scp=1&sq=alternative%20teaching&st=cse
- Mark, How do we influence AAHPERD since they are actively promoting both PE and health…we tried that route in NY by formallyseparating (health and PE) and we found it very hard to go against NYSAHPERD as they continued to have good attendance and the
health organization struggled. So, it is insitutionalized in our professional organizations
- In NC we rely on public health educators to provide regional professional development to school health educators..it makes for a great regional relationship since youth access public health resources locally
- I am curious as to how school health education became joined with physical education in the first place. Frankly, in high schooI. I always wondered what made my high school’s football coach qualified to teach me about sex education.
- Perhaps one solution could be an MPH/MAT or MPH/MEd combination for those wishing to focus on school-aged health education?
- To what extent do you agree that health professors are at fault for not advising their students appropriately during the past several decades? If they had recognized the economics of education – they would have advised their students to have second teaching
edorsements themselves in Spanish, special education , biology or any other second area in demand – all specialty areas need second endorsements for employment options – but health professors did not recognize this and did not prepare their majors with appropriate
other classroom endorsements – the PE combination is not appropriate because you can not teach the pedagogy for both classroom and non-classroom instruction in a 4 year period.
Tags: Health Education, ideas
Posted in The health education profession | 3 Comments »
Written by hedir on 01 May 2009
The H1N1 influenza virus is causing a great deal of confusion among people in various populations. Vice President Biden indicated he had advised family members to avoid air transportaion among other precautions, which the Obama administration describes as off-message. Celebrities, i.e., Paris Hilton, had indicated they do not eat pork, erroneously assuming this is an effective way to avoid becoming infected with the H1N1 virus. Public health authorities in Fort Worth Texas are encouraging cancellation of public gatherings, i.e., May Fest, a May 1 festival, while the director of the Dallas County Health Department is encouraging planners of public gatherings to hold their events, while providing additional access to sanitary facilities and materials for participants.
This seems an ideal time for health educators to fill the breech. Without a doubt, H1N1 will be with us for a while. While it is the new kid on the block, other strains of influenza regularly kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and account for hundreds of thousands of hospital admissions. If H1N1 becomes endemic, it may increase the volume of deaths and hospital admissions by anywhere from 25% to 100%. While H1N1 is the focus of the public’s attention, it is a good time to educate the public about effective disease prevention practices. For school health educators, this is a prime time to reinforce instruction on disease prevention and emphasize the need for a sound school health program. For health educators in clinical settings, this provides an excellent opportunity to reinforce messages to fellow health professinals and patients about the need for performing effective disease prevention activities.
Tags: Public Health Disease Prevention
Posted in Teaching, The health education profession | 2 Comments »
Written by hedir on 04 April 2009
My copy of the Spring 2009 issue of The CHES Bulletin arrived in the mail today. It is always a pleasure to read each new issue of this publication and learn the news about NCHEC and CHES. Three things were particularly of interest to me in this issue, including the health educator job analysis project report, the interview with Dr. Helen Cleary, and the list of health educators who have maintained the CHES credential for 20 years.
Credentialing for health educators began with a job analysis survey, which was the first step in the Role Delineation Project launched 30 years ago. Dr. Allan Henderson directed that project. The Framework for Preparation and Practice of Entry-Level Health Educators was a product of the Role Delineation Project. The seven areas of responsibility and competencies published in The Framework served as the foundation for the CHES Exam prior to the Competency Update Project.
It is always a pleasure to read the responses of Dr. Helen Cleary to interview questions. She has a quick wit and gives sage advice. Helen was the Chair of the National Task Force on Preparation and Practice of Health Educators, which provided oversight of the Role Delineation Project, develoment of The Framework, and, a year after she retired, chartering the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC).
Reviewing the list of health educators who were chartered CHES and have maintained this credential for 20 years caused some mixed emotions. Some of those chartered in 1989 have deceased, thus their names do not appear on the list. That is a bit sad. There are a few who waited until the CHES Exam was developed. They wanted to earn the CHES credential by taking the exam. Naturally, their names are not on the list. The number in the latter group is probably very small, but some of them are very important leaders of our field.
It was certainly rewarding to find many of my colleagues with whom I have enjoyed both professional and social contacts over the past 20, 30, or 40 years on the list of those maintaining the CHES credential for 20 years. Of course, there were a good number listed whom I have not knowingly met or had contact. The good part about this is that we had a wide array of our colleagues become chartered and maintain the credential for two full decades.
It sure is rewarding for those of us who helped establish NCHEC and the CHES credential to see that there are over 8000 health educators currently active holders of CHES. May our profession continue to grow and our credentials contribute to the respect members of it receive within the greater society.
Tags: Reading The CHES Bulletin
Posted in The health education profession | No Comments »
Written by hedir on 26 March 2009
In recent HEDIR discussions, there has been dialog about how health education and similar terms, e. g., wellness, health promotion, health science, and health studies, relate to one another. One term that did not get mentioned among the messages I read to this point is health communication. Given that HEDIR represents a manifestation of recent efforts to increase, and possibly improve, communication among health educators and that the HEDIR Award rewards efforts to apply emerging communication technologies within the health education profession, health communication seems to be an important term in our lexicon.
We see a similar evolution in efforts to apply emerging communication technologies in government and politics. Much of President Obama’s political campaign success is attributed to his ability to apply emerging communication technologies. This morning’s Yahoo front page carries an AP article about how he is applying new communication technologies to sell his budget. The following quote from this article seems to capture his perspective:
“Obama aides want to keep the questions about energy, health care and education, the three key priorities in his first budget document. Some of the questions will be from the Web site, others via YouTube and some from an audience of about 100 people representing teachers, nurses and small-business employees.
“The president just thinks it’s another opportunity to talk directly with the American people about the challenges that we have, the choices and the decisions that we’re making, and the path that we’re taking to get us back to prosperous days,” Gibbs said.”
Do health educators see a message in this for them? How important is applying effective communication strategies to professional health educators? Is it the core of what we do? Are we good at it? Are we getting better at it?
Posted in The health education profession | No Comments »
Written by hedir on 05 March 2009
I recently had a highly rewarding experience. Ms. Jannelle Hibbing, a health education major at Texas Sate University enrolled in a course taught by Steve Furney, interviewed me. Steve is using a strategy that I first learned from Edward “Ned” Johns to connect preprofessionals with seasoned professional health educators. It is a strategy that I used throughout my career and others, including Buzz Pruitt and June Gorski, have used. He assigns his students to research the careers of present, or, in cases involving retirees like me, past leaders within our field and interview them. Each student presents a summary of their findings in class.
Ms. Hibbing contacted me initially by email to describe her assignment and ask permission to conduct a telephone interview with me. I was pleased that someone considers me worthy of this honor. We had a wonderful interview session, during which I mentioned the value of HEDIR and HEDIR Blog for gaining some insights into views of fellow professional health educators. The HEDIR-wiki had not been established at that point.
My students were always delighted to learn how receptive leaders in our profession would be to their requests for an interview and for a cv or resume. Based on Ms. Hibbing’s report of the success of her presentation (success equals an A grade), she seems pleased with the experience.
Tags: Health Education profession
Posted in The health education profession | No Comments »
