डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्वविद्यालय दिल्ली 
| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Discipline Core | SPG2PH504 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: Intersession between 2nd and 3rd semester
Course Coordinator and Team: N. Nakkeeran & Samik Chowdhury
Email of course coordinator: nakkeeran@aud.ac.in
Pre-requisites: None
Aim: Exposure to field situations and relating it to classroom learning is essential part of public health learning and public health practice. The aim of this course is to get students associated with an agency / institution / community group which is engaged in public health practice or research, to gain sensitivity to diverse social and cultural settings and on issues such as health inequity, challenges in access to services etc.
Course Outcomes:
- Display an understanding on how an organisation of that level / size / nature is organised and function.
- Have independently undertaken public health related task(s) in the field
- Show evidence of applying a / reflecting on specific aspect of class-room learning to field situations
- Demonstrate application of one or more specific public health competencies
Brief description of modules/ Main modules:
Students will be doing this internship over a period of minimum 30 working days in any public health related agency / institution / community group located anywhere in the country or outside. During this period students will engage in undertaking assignments jointly decided by the student and internship agency with the internship supervising faculty member at AUD informed. These assignments should be in the nature of applying what the students learnt during the previous two semesters in a manner that is mutually relevant to the agency as well as the student. It may be in the form of a small research study, evaluation of a component, developing systems for any program, organising special programs or campaigns, training, preparation of manuals etc. However, this should not preferably include doing repetitive tasks, which do not provide opportunity for the student to learn or apply what was learnt in theory classes or hone select public health competencies. Students will be supervised and coordinated by faculty members and one or more designated staff from the agency where the student is placed.
The internship organization could be a government, non-government, quasi-government, local bodies, non-profit, for-profit, community based organizations; located anywhere in the country or outside; involved in public health or allied activities such as nutrition, environment, sanitation, water, public health law, rural or urban planning and development, worker’s safety and health, etc; in the form of delivery of public health or allied services, funding, program implementation, evaluation or assessment, documenting, research, teaching or training; or any other similar agency.
Students, in consultation and with the approval of the program team / course coordinator, will identify and write to one or more agencies to finalize the internship agency. Program team / course coordinator would facilitate this process of identifying the internship agency.
Assessment will be done by the faculty coordinator in consultation with the internship agency.
Assessment Details with weights:
- Internship diary/log: a DAILY record (hand written or typed) of your activities, experiences, interactions, new acquaintances, observations etc. that will have to be submitted at the end of the internship. The diary should ideally feed into your internship report/journal (Weightage: 10%)
- Evaluation by the organisation: formats for (1) attendance and (2) short descriptive & scale-based report on the students' work and conduct will be shared with the organization (Weightage: 30%)
- Presentation (Weightage: 30%)
- Internship report/journal: A hand-written/typed document (4000 words or above) that describes the workplace, profile of organisation, task assigned, profile of the community (if there was a field component), activities undertaken, contribution of your activity to the larger project, aspects of classroom learning applied, new skills learnt, critical reflections etc. You will also have to make a presentation of this report/journal (Weightage:30%)
Reading List:
- Gebbie, K., Rosenstock, L., and Hernandez LM., “Public Health Agencies: Their Roles in Educating Public Health Professionals” Kristine Gebbie, Linda Rosenstock, and Lyla M. Hernandez (Eds) Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century Committee on Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century, (2003), pp145-67 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221182/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK221182.pdf
- Lehman, L., Individual feedback- Thoughts about our field visits and the health system in India, 2015, https://iphindia.org/individual-feedback-thoughts-field-visits-health-system-india-lion-lehmann/
- Zimring, C., A Guide to Conducting Healthcare Facility Visits, The Center for Health Design, Martinez, US, 1994, https://www.healthdesign.org/sites/default/files/Healthcare%20Facility%20Visits.PDF