Global Determinants of Health and Development Course

Course Coordinators: Dr. Edward Lahiff and Dr. Raúl Pardíñaz-Solís

The Global Determinants of Health and Development Course (GDH&D) in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is the result of an innovative collaboration between an academic institution - the School of Medicine at TCD and an Irish NGO - Skillshare International Ireland. The course was open for the first time last year in February 2009 to third year medical students. This year, the course is open to third year medical students at TCD in February 2010 for one intensive week.

One student said "My expectations of the course were certainly exceeded. Having no previous knowledge of Skillshare, I had expected a very standard exploration of issues surrounding global health - a review of information we had heard countless times before during our course and on the news. However, I was pleased that Skillshare expanded on this by using speakers with first-hand experience and giving us the opportunity to learn from them in our workshops. The workshops also provided us with the chance to put forward our own views and have them challenged in group discussions. The debates that arose from the MSF and Suas presentations were a highlight, along with the video conference with Dr Alice Mabota. Furthermore, the number of issues that interact to influence global health was discussed extensively and highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of problems related to global health"

The course aim:

To develop students' understanding of emerging health issues in Ireland and their relationship with global health issues and international development.

Photo: Skillshare development worker Monique Janssen leads a workshop on conflict and health at St James Hospital, March 2009.
(c) Skillshare/Raúl Pardíñaz-Solís

Course topics:

The course has been organised in a conference format. Topics have been chosen and designed to address the course aims, objectives and learning outcomes; these will be delivered either in plenary sessions (ps) or workshop sessions (ws):

Overview of Global Health and Development (ps)
Challenges of humanitarian assistance provision in armed conflict (ps)
Combating Malaria in Tanzania (ps)
Climate Change and Global Health (ps)
Global Partnerships for Health - Access to Medicines (ps)
Health Worker Migration: a pervasive subsidy (ps)
NGOs in Global Health (ps)
One Health for All (video conference)
Immunisation: The Politics of Health (ws)
Health Worker Migration (ws)
Climat Change Inpact on Health (ws)
Malaria: Case Study of Drug Development, Deployment and Delivery for a Global Disease (ws)

Assessment:

Assessment is portfolio style, including:


• An anonymous attitude survey developed by Dr. Adrian Hastings and Dr R PardíñazSolís; pre- and post-course.

• An individual reflective essay (+/- 700 words) / student self-evaluation. Click here to complete this online.

• A group poster presentation - small group of 5-7 students present on an allocated topic (choice available) which is peer reviewed and assessed by the course organisers/tutors. Posters will be displayed at a public event in April 2010.

• Course evaluation - this is the students' assessment of the course; results will be used to improve future content and methods of delivery.


For further information about the GDH&D course, please contact the module coordinators:
Dr. Edward Lahiff, Coordinator - International Doctorate in Global Health Centre for Global Health, Trinity College Dublin. Tel: + 353 1 896 4177, edward.lahiff@tcd.ie
Dr. Raúl Pardíñaz-Solís, Development Awareness Officer, Skillshare International Ireland, raul.pardinaz-solis@skillshare.org

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