A new approach to teaching public health advocacy

Abstract

Public health leaders face many challenges in influencing policy and public opinion, especially in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, public health training does not always prepare practitioners to advocate, communicate with the public or move beyond technocratic approaches to policy development. To address these challenges, we designed and delivered a new course on public health advocacy to help professional-stream doctoral students understand and use journalistic skills in developing a relationships-based approach to political and policy change. The course drew on students’ career experiences to anchor conversations that explored journalism as a novel approach for open-mindedness in public health advocacy, situated the political process as a legitimate democratic space for public health advocacy, and contextualized advocacy work in the broader context of relationship building and systems change. In this commentary, we share insights from the course to demonstrate how public health leaders can draw on journalism training to better shape and participate in public discussion.

Keywords

• public health
• advocacy
• graduate education
• professional training
• adult learning
• interdisciplinary journalism education