Public Health Medicine
Leading a cross-section of organisations and individuals, public health consultants strive to realise ways of making our communities and our environments healthier, and more capable of providing us with what we need for optimal health. Leaders in public health must be diverse in their capabilities: creative in their ability to visualise change, meticulous and organised in making it happen, and then monitoring the results. They take on the challenge of extremely varied and often unpredictable workloads. Timescales for getting projects up and running can be long and require a great deal of negotiation, but a good public health consultant will be able to handle the challenge of this, providing the leadership and management skills necessary to see projects through to completion. They seldom, if ever, work on one project at a time, and must also be able to respond to emergencies as they arise.
To do the job, they must have a broad understanding of all the factors that contribute to health, the structure of healthcare systems and services, current government policy, and how to effectively interpret available data. Are able to evaluate evidence to devise and implement strategies to improve and protect health, and to improve health services. Public Health Consultants are both tough negotiators and simultaneously possess good powers of persuasion to get the community, other stakeholder organisations and politicians to agree and work effectively towards common goals.
Some consultants will become experts in a specific area of public health, while others will find that their job incorporates a cross-section of public health activities and/or research. However, their work usually falls within one or all of the following three domains: improving health, protecting health or improving health services.
Those who have completed their training are eligible to apply for posts at Area Board level, in the DHSSPS, in the university department of public health medicine or in hospital or community trusts.In Northern Ireland the number of vacancies is approximately balanced to the number of suitably qualified candidates. However, in the United Kingdom there is likely to be a shortage of posts for training candidates for the next few years.
Training Programme Details
Courses
For information on available courses click here
Contact Information
| Name and Position | Contact Information |
|---|---|
|
Dr Denise O’Hagan |
Email: denise.ohagan@hscni.net |