Improving Care in Developing Nations
| Module title | Improving Care in Developing Nations |
|---|---|
| Module code | HPDM198 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Rob Daniels (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 4 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 30 |
|---|
Module description
You will build the skills needed to support communities in developing nations to improve health outcomes through a collaborative solution-focused format, looking at practical solutions to current and future health issues, including those made worse by climate change. The content will include consideration of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with a global perspective and how they relate to you.
This module will be ideal if you are from clinical and non-clinical backgrounds hoping to develop a portfolio career including humanitarian or development work, if you are keen to develop innovative solutions to health priorities, or if you are intending to return to work in health leadership and management roles, either in developing or mature health economies. The multispeciality format makes this suitable for all health-related disciplines and the format will allow for remote online as well as face-to-face teaching.
This module is a unique opportunity for you in that it allows students to study alongside faculty from around the world.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module will help you develop key critical thinking and management skills in the planning and delivery of new strategies to manage emerging and current health issues, including those related directly or indirectly to climate change. You will consider alignment of the sustainable development goals with local issues.
The module will use a blended learning format, with theoretical components contained in the initial self-directed learning phase. This will be followed by a multidisciplinary small-group phase, running over several sessions, with contact sessions focussing on specific health issues.
Each group will use an action learning set approach to analyse causes and consequences of health issues, explore potential solutions and develop implementation strategies. These small-group sessions will be supported by faculty from NGO’s and universities in developing countries with direct experience of working in developing nations and with a range of backgrounds.
The contact sessions and assessment will involve students pitching business proposals to the wider group, which will help students develop presentation skills.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Critically appraise skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to plan and deliver interventions to improve health outcomes
- 2. Evaluate multi-factorial determinants of health in developing nations
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Analyse root causes of health issues using Quality Indicators (QIs) and other management techniques
- 4. Create approaches to design, deliver and monitor interventions to address specific health issues
- 5. Apply a global perspective to local issues including SDGs
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Describe techniques in a rapid assessment approach to analyse health issues in a variety of settings
- 7. Work in multidisciplinary teams to recognise relevant approaches and apply to specific case studies to improve health outcomes
Syllabus plan
Part A of the module will involve course reading on ELE with a mixture of reading/resources and self directed learning activities. This will cover the theoretical basis of the course, looking at the key determinants of health in developing and developed nations, including geopolitical factors and the impact of a changing climate, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using a mixture of theory and case studies.
Part B of the module will involve contact sessions, which will be delivered both online and face to face. The format will be the same and they will occur synchronously, with small groups designed to mix groups of students and faculty from different backgrounds. International students based outside the UK will be able to attend an online small group session while students in the UK will attend face-to-face. This will provide maximal opportunity for international engagement (faculty and students) while minimising travel. Each contact session will have a theme, and each group will analyse the problem and develop solutions. Each session will finish with each group of students delivering a project presentation on causes and solutions to address the health issue of that week.
Students will be guided by faculty to develop innovative solutions that are transferable and will include consideration of project management, cost, and delivery.
Themes will include, but not be limited to:
- Reducing the burden of respiratory illness in rural Nepal
- Improving women and girls’ lives through addressing period poverty in Africa
- Reducing maternal and infant mortality in developing countries
- Reducing the impact of infectious disease in infants and children through improved access to medication
- Addressing the growth of non-communicable diseases in low and middle income countries
A total of 150 hours of learning activities and teaching methods is required for this 15-credit point module.
Face-to-face scheduled lectures and tutorials may be replaced by short, pre-recorded videos and/or brief overview lectures delivered via MS Teams/Zoom, with learning consolidated by self-directed learning resources and ELE activities if a situation arises that the scheduled activities are interrupted. These interruptions should be minimised.
Descriptions of scheduling are to be taken as an example and can be changed without notice depending on timetabling restrictions within the programme and/or university room availability.
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | Yes |
| Origin date | 25/09/2024 |
| Last revision date | 25/04/2025 |
