Writing for Public Health: Strategies for Teaching Writing in a School or Program of Public Health

Pedagogical and teaching strategies used to teach writing to pre-licensure students enrolled in health professional programs: a scoping review protocol

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this review is to map the existing literature on pedagogical approaches and teaching strategies used to teach academic and professional writing to pre-licensure students who are enrolled in health professional programs.

INTRODUCTION

Health professional programs are intended to develop competence in both academic and professional writing. Effective academic writing skills prompt critical reflection and engagement with research communities, while professional writing skills are used to document interventions and communicate across health systems. Despite the importance of these 2 forms of writing, there are ongoing concerns that practitioners are entering practice without adequate writing skills. Given these concerns and the importance of writing across health disciplines, there is value in identifying the pedagogical strategies and approaches used in health professional programs to develop writing skills and to transfer such skills from one communicative context to another.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

This review will consider research on the pedagogical approaches and teaching strategies used to teach academic and professional writing in pre-licensure health professional programs.

METHODS

This review will be conducted in line with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. The search strategy will aim to locate published literature using MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, CINAHL with Full-Text (EBSCOhost), ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health (ProQuest), and ERIC (EBSCOhost), along with gray literature (using databases/search engines). Papers published from 2010 onward in English and in French will be included. Extracted data will be reported in tabular format and presented narratively to address each review objective.

DETAILS OF THE REVIEW CAN BE FOUND IN OPEN SCIENCE FRAMEWORK

http://osf.io/9raxp.

Lessons Learned From a Peer Writing Coach Program in a School of Public Health

Clear writing is a critical component of public health research and practice. The ability to convey information in a concise, engaging, and insightful manner influences stakeholder engagement and is the backbone of program and policy development, organization, and implementation. To help master of public health (MPH) students adapt their writing skills to these specialized demands, Boston University School of Public Health launched the Peer Writing Coach Program in 2010 staffed by MPH students. The service is open to all students enrolled in public health classes. They can schedule up to 2 appointments per assignment for both individual and team papers. Student use increased from 55 appointments in academic year 2010-2011 (the first year of the program) to 767 appointments in academic year 2017-2018. For the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 academic years, 1128 (74%) of 1530 appointment requests asked for assistance "writing clearly and concisely," 886 (58%) for assistance "organizing and synthesizing main points of argument," and 529 (35%) for assistance "tailoring writing for a specific audience." This case study describes the rationale for creating the program, outlines the chronology of its development since 2010, and provides an overview of peer coach training, student use, and lessons learned as we addressed logistical challenges.

A disconnect between classroom and professional writing: we are not teaching public health students to write effective titles

Titles are considered a crucial element of grant applications, journal articles, reports and other public health documents, but they are often overlooked in student writing assignments. In this article, we argue that public health instructors should teach students how to write compelling document titles. Our argument about titles is part of a broader assertion that public health students should be asked to write in professional formats such as grant applications, reports and journal articles. Requiring students to engage with important writing conventions like titles that are used in the professional workplace helps them make connections between the content they are writing about and the activities, roles, values and context of public health practice. We recommend that instructors explicitly incorporate titles into their assigned writing in three ways: first, instructors should require titles; second, instructors should provide criteria for a good title that are appropriate to the document type and finally, instructors should award points for a good title.

A Public Health Service-Learning Capstone: Ideal for Students, Academia and Community

Undergraduate public health degree programs strive to educate students to improve the health of communities. As such we have an obligation to develop curricula that push students to think critically about their perspectives, examine assumptions, and provide supported opportunities to apply their academic learning. In addition, curricula ideally develop and nurture students' sense of civic responsibility. Community-engaged learning provides opportunities for students to interact with populations with a range of needs and different perspectives. Students need to be prepared to engage ethically and respectfully, while thinking critically about and reflecting on their roles in these communities. Service-learning is a high-impact practice that combines community service with structured academic learning, including preparation, and reflection. In line with public health community-based work, a key aspect of service-learning is the intentional development of community partnerships to ensure that students are filling the needs defined by the communities themselves. Accreditation criteria may guide what is taught but say little about how it should be taught. However, how we teach matters. Service-learning is a high impact practice that not only aligns well with the goals and objectives of an accreditation required culminating senior experience but shares many of the values of the discipline of public health. This paper analyzes the use of service-learning in the development and delivery of the University of Washington School of Public Health undergraduate Public Health-Global Health majors' culminating experience. We describe the course learning objectives, structure, and assessment tools. In addition, we present quantitative and qualitative results on the impact of the course. We argue that it is feasible, sustainable, and beneficial to students and communities when the high impact practice of service-learning is used in delivery of a culminating senior experience.