MHST631 is the eighth course I have completed on my Master of Health Studies journey, and the last twelve weeks have certainly been an adventure. I started out strong – had the week one readings completed by the Thursday and managed to get my posts in before the end of the weekend. Moreover, knowing that I was going to be away for two weeks during this course I eagerly jumped into the week two learnings. However, things seemed to stall for me there as I struggled to get caught up after my vacation and my work-life-education balance all went sideways. However, now that we are in the last few days of the course and I’m preparing to leave on another canoe trip with my family this weekend, my experience can be categorized as positive.
We don’t know what we don’t know – this is a saying one of my mentors frequently used. I thought I had a good idea of what health promotion was, and what actions would be required to support an effective health promotion strategy. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I wasn’t aware of the Ottawa Charter before this course and my journey into new learnings continued from there. One element I continue to struggle with is differentiating process improvement and health promotion – are they equivalents or are they distinct processes? At this point in time, I believe they are equivalent. Quality improvement initiatives in a healthcare setting are typically undertaken to improve an outcome, such as quicker laboratory results, fewer no-shows in diagnostic imaging or adjusting booking times to achieve a higher throughput of computed tomography patients per day. Each of these initiatives will impact the health of our community, and as such, require effective health promotion strategies to ensure the desired goals are achieved, and they are aligned with needs and desires of the people we serve.
The learning topic that stands out the most for me is our review of the Population Health Promotion model. Firstly, I am a fan of Rubik's Cubes so the presentation of the model in cube format reminded me of rainy days of my youth, trying to get all the colours to align without pulling the stickers off and replacing them! Secondly, the model is very straightforward and enables leaders to effectively consider what, how and with whom they will act for their health promotion strategy. Using the model to identify an action strategy from the Ottawa Charter, a social determinant of health to focus on, and which segment of the population will need to be engaged with very quickly forms the key elements of a project plan. In my professional work I have been aware of the importance of each of these elements and through this course I have increased my knowledge of planning and community engagement strategies that can be utilized to support health promotion initiatives. Just like a Rubik's cube, there are many different combinations of strategies, determinants and people that can be involved in health promotion activities, and effective healthcare leaders must consider each of them to achieve the best possible outcomes for the people of the community in which we live.
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