UBC Public Health Interest Group

Name of proposed student interest group:

University of British Columbia Public Health Student Interest Group (UBC PHIG)

Is this an existing or new student interest group?

This is a new interdisciplinary student group comprised of multicampus students in the fields Epidemiology, Microbiology, Community Medicine, Midwifery, Nursing, Medicine, with plans to include students with public health interests from other diverse disciplines across the three campuses.

OBJECTIVES:

  • To raise awareness of the public health field among students
  • To increase knowledge of concepts and issues pertaining to public health
  • To foster the integration of public health concepts into future practice across all health-related disciplines
  • To create opportunities for interdisciplinary networking and mentoring among students and faculty in Community Medicine, Family Medicine, Health Care and Epidemiology, Medicine, Midwifery, Nursing and other health-related disciplines across the 3 campuses of UBC (Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George)
  • To foster camaraderie and opportunities for social networking

Description of potential activities:

  1. Speakers evenings:
  • This would be a social event which includes light refreshments and snacks, where Beginning early Fall: New Residency Director, Residents: What is Public Health
    Distributed Food
  • Possible topics include:
    • Women’s Health initiatives in Vancouver
    • Ethnic differences in Health Care and Seeking Behaviors
    • HIV/AIDS
    • Forum Theatre: Sexual Health and HIV
    • Addictions, harm reduction strategies
    • Essential Medicines
  1. Site Visits???
  2. Mentored participation in Grand Rounds held every Friday morning in the Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology, plus monthly breakfast meetings held immediately before Grand Rounds
  • grand round topics and dates of interest to public health
  • topic 2 and date 2, etc
  1. Develop a Public Health Interest Group email list for interested students to circulate current information from the Public Health Field and to announce events and presentations with a public health topic or focus.
  2. Host a conference in the Spring of 2008 on Public Health
  3. Use Faculty of Medicine teleconferencing facilities to holds joint meetings with groups at campuses in Vancouver, Victoria and Prince George

Describe how you will promote the proposed student interest group:

  1. We will use a number of pre-existing email lists for students and faculty including:
  • Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology list (Masters and PhD students)
  • Community Medicine Residency list
  • Medical Students list
  • Midwifery Students list
  • Specific Public Health Interest Group list (described above)
  1. Posters advertising the group and how to contact posted in the various departments
  2. Webpage for the Public Health Interest Group which will describe the group's objectives, organisation, contacts, calendar of activities, and how to sign up for and post to the group's email list.
  3. Using the university calendar to identify and contact professors and lecturers who are presenting courses and seminars on topics of relevance to public health and promote the group and its activities via the classroom environment.

Number of potential members:

  • Number of students in Community Medicine (graduate)
  • Number of students in Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology (graduate)
  • Number of students in Family Medicine (graduate)
  • Number of students in Nursing program (undergraduate and graduate)
  • Number of students in Mid-wifery program (undergraduate)
  • Number of students in Medicine at UBC Victoria campus
  • Number of students in Medicine at UBC Prince George campus
  • Students in other health related disciplines, e.g. biosciences

Feasibility

Our approach is to capitalize on existing facilities and activities in the various areas of the the Faculty of Medicine in order to deliver the activities of the Public Health Interest Group.

For example, the Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology already holds Grand Rounds every Friday which often cover topics with a public health focus. Currently these rounds are exclusively advertised to and attended by graduate students in the department. With the support of a faculty member in the department (who has also signed on to this application as a supporter), we propose to promote and offer mentored attendance at these rounds to students outside the department who are interested in public health. This would serve multiple objectives including promoting the topic of public health, providing opportunities to learn more about public health issues to more students, and fostering networking among students across all areas of the Faculty of Medicine and related disciplines (e.g. nursing).

The university calendar itself is a resource of all the courses and faculty with a public health orientation and the PHIG can help publicize and promote these courses to students who might not otherwise be aware of relevant offerings outside their own areas or departments.

The Faculty of Medicine has extensive teleconferencing facilities which can be used to facilitate participation in presentations and discussions by students at remote campuses. Our faculty supporter has offered her office for meetings and there is a coffee-shop associated with a university residence across the road from the building where Grand Rounds are held which has ample space and internet access and is suitable for holding the breakfast meetings before rounds

Sustainability

In line with feasibility approach, the AFMC grant will be used to found the PHIG and offers a two year period which will permit establishing a track record of success in promoting public health with the intention of approaching the Faculty of Medicine for ongoing funding of PHIG activities once the AFMC funding is over.

aargh! - I had the above two sections written and clicked the wrong button and lost it so now this is a rewrite which is not as good as the first attempt...:(

Founding Members

(I'd strongly suggest not actually putting people's email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses online here - just add them to the finished proposal document in Word)

  • Jennifer Barley, class of 2007, Vancouver Fraser Medical Program (Vancouver campus)
  • Veerle Willaeys MD MPH, Community Medicine (Vancouver campus)
  • Azar Mehrabadi, MSc. program 2nd year, Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology (Vancouver campus)
  • Emma Preston, class of ????, Biomedicine (Vancouver campus)
  • Amy Braunstein, class of 2010, Midwifery programme (Vancouver campus)
  • Warren Michelow, PhD. program 2nd year, Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology (Vancouver campus)
  • Toma Timothy, class of 2009, Island Medical Program (Victoria campus)
  • Kathryn Mackinlay, class of 2010, Northern Medical Program (Prince George campus)
  • Candace Haddock, class of 2011, Vancouver Fraser Medical Program (Vancouver campus)
  • Faculty Supporter: Prof. Erica Frank, Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology (Vancouver campus)

Attachments

UBC PHIG Constitution and Bylaws

(modelled on the UAEM C&B to be sent around)

this is a test by Azar