Undergraduate Teaching

The School of Public Health contributes to undergraduate teaching in a number of ways. We are responsible for the planning and implementation of the community doctor theme in GEMP 1 and 2. Our contribution exposes students to rural and urban locations in Gauteng in which they have the opportunity to apply the theory that they have learnt in previous years.

During these visits students understand the socio-economic determinants of health and have first hand experience of the challenges and opportunities for delivering appropriate health care services.

In GEMP 1 and 2, the students are exposed to basic building blocks of public health: epidemiology and biostatistics, control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, occupational and environmental medicine and social medicine. This is accentuated through problem based service learning opportunities within the GEMP programme. The School recognises the need for students to understand the diverse health problems of different communities in South Africa, and took steps to provide educational opportunities using service learning experiences. Students engage with individuals experiencing health problems at community level, align provider perceptions of service needs with the needs of the community, and equip students with the skills and confidence necessary to provide services and outreach.

Service learning benefits the student, community and service partners. It inspires new perspectives and enthusiasm for students, provides a hands-on, real-life experience that not only helps to build skills needed in the real world but also enhances their personal and professional development. Community and service partners benefit from the students expertise as well as the extra manpower that may make it possible to accomplish projects larger or more complicated than they would otherwise be able to take on. The key learning outcomes for the students stem from integrating action and reflection, where students demonstrate knowledge and practice of the critical skills of communication, team work, delegation, conflict resolution and crisis management.

The School continues its long-term relationship with the City of Johannesburg Primary Health Care service division through the service-learning programme which includes the 5-day training of PHC staff to build support for service learning and health promotion.

Mercy Hlungwani, Senior Lecturer in the School coordinates the service learning programme. Fifty two groups of students spend a year visiting a specific site. They develop a relevant intervention in conjunction with the health service in a specific community. Through this arrangement, City Health staff manage projects and campaigns in the regions and support the students in their service learning.

Projects undertaken by students include awareness on teenage pregnancy in schools, measles campaign, waste management, hand washing campaigns in creches and schools, sexuality education in schools, VCT campaigns, school mental health projects, HIV/AIDS awareness and education, safety in illegal accommodation, health education for informal traders, child health and safety education, training of food handlers, health education in informal settlements and establishing a youth friendly service in a clinic. TB programme for newly diagnosed patients, TB defaulter tracing project, Anti Tobacco Campaign, sanitation and hygiene in high schools, psychosocial issues in HIV, formulating HIV support groups in clinics, formulating support groups for people with chronic illnesses in clinics, pesticide safety, chemical safety at workplaces, food gardens in schools and different aspects of health promotion. Students helped fund-raise to improve conditions in cr?es and developed first aid rooms in some schools.. In Clinics, the students develop and prepare all materials used in their health education projects, and provide educational sessions on diabetes (Type I and Type II) and hypertension. In addition, they offer blood sugar screenings to the community.

GEMP 3 - Public Health Block
Students are exposed to public health during a two week block in GEMP 3. Students spend ten days in Bushbuckridge sub-district in Mpumalanga. In this rural area of South Africa, they are exposed to a number of different health care providers (traditional healers, community based organisations) and public health programmes, such as the malaria programme. The purpose of this two week block is for students to gain an understanding of the public health problems challenges facing South Africa and some of the challenges facing the public health system in addressing these challenges.

The block focuses on district health systems, primary health care and community-based interventions.

This service based learning helps the students to integrate public health medicine teaching into practice and for many students is their first exposure to rural areas and primary health care. We believe that this is good preparation for internship and community service years that follow graduation. Click here to download the course booklet

In GEMP 4, the School participates in the Integrated Primary Care Block, a innovative 6-week rotation for final year medical students in the GEMP. The focus is practical implementation of students? knowledge and skills gained through the preceding years of study, in the primary care context. Students work in clinics, health centres and district hospitals, in Gauteng and North West provinces. This marks a change from previous tertiary hospital based training of medical students. It is integrated in 2 ways:

Instead of seeing patients who are already compartmentalised by classification according to their conditions, students see undifferentiated patients. The patient must thus be considered as an integrated whole, and all of their problems must be attended to, within the context of their family and community.

The development and planning of this block has been the responsibility of a team, coordinated by the Rural Health Unit, which includes specialists from Public Health Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Psychiatry. Elements related to each of these disciplines have been integrated into a range of tasks, which students are required to complete. All disciplines are involved in the assessment.

Students are required to achieve a range of objectives, which relate to clinical care, a biopsychosocial approach, health promotion and disease prevention, the health care team, and the health care system. Specific tasks related to public health include:

• understanding the process of control of diseases in primary care a health facility audit
• to assess the functioning of the site to which they are allocated
• a quality improvement project, where students work with local staff to tackle a deficit in the system by proposing and implementing some changes.

Bachelor of Health Sciences

Bachelor of Health Sciences is a relatively new three-year programme at Wits. The School contributes actively in the second and third year of the programme and areas covered include health measurement, social determinants of health, health promotion, health and hospital management.

The undergraduate programme could not be the success it is without the contribution from our staff: Professor Shan Naidoo, Dr Julia Moorman,  Ms Mercy Hlungwani, Dr Roxy Jina, Dr Sinola Rajaram, Dr Moreshenee Govender  and Ms Thembi Matokane.

In addition, we would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of community-organisations and health care providers who helped us to maintain the service learning sites.