Interdisciplinary collaborations required: Teaching health educators infectious disease dynamics
Abstract
Infectious diseases, including zoonotic infectious diseases, are some of the leading causes of the global burden of diseases. Public health education/promotion specialists are specifically trained in methods and theory to deliver risk communication that can help decrease the transmissibility, morbidity, and mortality of infectious diseases. However, the limited training of health educators in infectious disease dynamics represents a critical barrier for health educators wishing to engage in this work. In this commentary, we describe the importance of health education/promotion specialists being trained on infectious disease dynamics to engage in effective science and health communication locally and globally.
What is this paper about?
Health education and promotion specialists are trained to design, implement, and evaluate health programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were some health education/promotion specialists indicating feeling underprepared for infectious disease prevention education. This paper describes the importance of training health educators about infectious diseases.
How does this paper improve public health?
This paper encourages the fields of health education/promotion and medical geography work together to improve the training of the public health workforce.
Disclosures
- Is this paper peer reviewed? This paper is published in the journal Pedagogy in Health Promotion. This journal uses double-blind peer review, where the authors and the reviewers do not know each other’s identities.
- Who paid for this project? This paper received no funding.
- Are there any conflicts of interest? There are no financial conflicts of interest. Tyler G. James is on the Editorial Board of the journal Pedagogy in Health Promotion.
Tyler G. James
Doctoral Candidate and Graduate School Fellow
My research interests include the application of quantitative and mixed methods to develop and advance health behavior theory and practice, with specific focus on healthcare access for deaf and hard-of-hearing community.