Over 800 public health educators and researchers descended on Austin, Texas to participate in the joint APTR, American College of Preventive Medicine and American College of Medical Quality meeting. Our three organizations worked together to sponsor over 50 educational sessions, 100 posters, skills building institutes, and round table discussions.

TEACHING PREVENTION 2008 was designed to address the needs and interests of meeting attendees. Educational session topics included: teaching and practicing prevention, pioneering new approaches in interprofessional prevention education, credentialing, undergraduate public health education, prevention and population health for health sciences students, and community engagement in the research arena.

The APTR Annual Meeting will continue to work towards providing attendees with an enriching experience that allows networking, engaging educational sessions, and professional development.

 

Institute for Interprofessional Prevention Education Posters

The teams from the 2007 Institute for Interprofessional Prevention Education presented poster at the annual meeting. The APTR Institute for Interprofessional Prevention Education was designed to help members of academic health care faculties develop and promote projects that would be conducted by interprofessional teams of students in their local communities. Learn more about the 2007 Institute Awardees projects.

 

Undergraduate Public Health Education

On February 22nd, APTR held the Undergraduate Public Health Day. The day was a huge success attracting educators from across the nation to learn about this new initiative. The undergraduate public health initiative continues to move forward while building upon the success of the Public Health and Liberal Education Faculty Development workshop in July 2007. The definitive goal of the day was to introduce faculty to a range of introductory curriculum in public health. The workshop provided best practices, informal opportunities to collaborate with other faculty members who are teaching undergraduate public health courses and skill building sessions to provide myriad resources to assist faculty in designing undergraduate public health courses. Workshop organizer, Dr. Richard Riegelman, Professor of Epidemiology-Biostatistics, Medicine and Health Policy and Founding Dean of The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, was very pleased with the turnout for the day. He remarks: “The sessions were filled to capacity with faculty members at every stage of developing and teaching undergraduate public health courses on their own campuses. Attendees were eager to learn about original and innovative methods of instruction.”

An Undergraduate Curriculum Development Institute has been developed and will take place on July 14-15, 2008 in Arlington, VA as Phase Two of the joint educational effort between APTR and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). The Institute will complement the momentum and enthusiasm initiated by the July 2007 workshop and Undergraduate Public Health Day. The July 2008 institute will provide more than forty institutional teams of three faculty members each with the tools needed to develop coherent undergraduate curricula in public health (in the form of majors, minors or certificate programs), including core courses, electives and experiential learning opportunities. Team members will build collaborative capacity and strengthen relationships between the campus and community and share experiences with colleagues working toward similar goals to link public health courses and initiatives with the essential learning outcomes of a liberal education.

Educational Scholarship Recipients

APTR provided nine interprofessional student scholarships for the 2007 Paul Ambrose Scholars Program (PASP) participants to attend TEACHING PREVENTION 2008. The selected students were paired with an APTR member mentor from their discipline for the duration of the meeting. The mentor introduced the students to other participants, answered general questions and served as a guide to help the students select relevant sessions for their interests and disciplines.

Following the meeting, each scholarship recipient was required to report back to APTR following the meeting about the impact of this experience on their personal, academic, and career goals. Click here to take at look at their impressions of the meeting and feedback they shared with us.

 

Click here to learn more about the Paul Ambrose Scholars Program.