Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health

Pakistan has one of the best-knitted networks of health care facilities in the public sector; and a very large private sector. The public sector facilities mostly, face the problems of underutilization and under-functioning along with technical and allocative inefficiency. This situation has been described in different donor reports and evaluations carried out by the Government of Pakistan. The management of the private sector has also been considered inefficient and not very effective. Specific Management tools and techniques, such as strategic management, management by objectives, quality assurance methods, monitoring and evaluation of the health systems outputs and outcomes, and an economic appraisal are not practiced in both the public and the private sector. One of the primary reasons for all these issues is that most health managers lack expertise in health management. Insufficient management knowledge, inappropriate skills and lack of expertise in management, further undermine their capability to improve the health system. The way forward is continuous education and training leading to the capacity building of the mid-level health managers and encouraging them to apply their knowledge in their respective settings. On the other hand, there is no well-developed and properly facilitated management training being offered in Pakistan which can fulfil the need of the health managers in public as well as private sector.

Diploma in Public Health is a wonderful opportunity designed to improve the public health capacity of health professional in terms of their knowledge, attitude and skills in Pakistan.

Diploma in PH aims to develop professionals in the field of Public Health through a comprehensive post-graduate program. It offers intensive practical training in the operational and clinical areas of a hospital. It equips them with PH skills like planning, organizing and decision- making with specific relevance to healthcare industry. Health industry is growing at a fast rate every year. In Pakistan growing occupations are also related to healthcare. Health care is likely to generate new jobs. It is estimated that the demand for public health is expected to touch over 6000 within next five years in Pakistan. Existing healthcare organizations are expanding their hospitals to add new service areas; and new organizations are entering the domain.

The graduates of the DPH program will be prepared to:

• Train competent, committed and skilled public health
• Assist in translation of knowledge into sound evidence-based policies and
• Prepare leadership in public
• Develop, administer and evaluate health policies and
• Participate directly in efforts to improve the health of the community using community- based and health systems’ assessment of
• Conduct basic and applied research relevant to the description, risk factors and interventions for the resolution of health problems in the human
• Describe basic methods of quantitative analysis being used by health
• Demonstrate change management, communication and leadership
• Define what quality means from the standpoint of the variety of

In order to achieve these core competencies each course has been tailored with its learning objectives which further lead to enrichment of the course content.

It is One-Year program comprising of 2 semesters and each semesters’ duration is 6 months.

COURSE-WISE CREDIT HOURS AND MARKS DITRIBUTION FOR DIPLOMA IN PUBLIC HEALTH (DPH)

The student will be advised to select a public health topic with his/her professional requirements during the first semester. The proposal formulated has to be critically appraised by the Academic Committee of Health Services Academy and simultaneously the Institutional Research Board (IRB) at end of the first semester. The committee can suggest changes which will be communicated to the student at the time of critical appraisal. The students will carry out data collection, data analysis, interpretation and presentation of the results leading to conclusions from the study under the dissertation writing guidelines during the third semester. The primary educational objective of the dissertation is to demonstrate appropriate consideration and application of core concepts, skills, and knowledge in analyzing a public health problem within any of the proscribed frameworks. The core area competencies must be addressed in each project. These competency areas cut across the domains identified for each specific framework. For example, quantitative competence may be demonstrated in the literature review and/or methodology section and/or results and/or discussion section of a publication framework. All papers are required to demonstrate minimum competence but are held accountable to a level of competence consistent with the problem and framework as defined by the student.

Public health focuses on monitoring, achieving and improving the health of a population and is practiced in a variety of settings. The public health professional applies knowledge and skill from the core content areas of public health (biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, health services management, and social and behavioural sciences) to design, manage and evaluate solutions to public health problems. Using practicum in Diploma in Public Health student learn and develop necessary skill sets for becoming a successful PH professional.

The practicum is intended to develop direct understanding and experience in PH, thereby exposing the student to community cultures, health system, operations and resources, programs and services and target populations. Such knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences will continue to develop and grow as each student graduates and becomes a life-long learner and practitioner of public health. The goal of the practicum is to provide a structured and supervised opportunity for the student to apply the theories, principles, knowledge and skills of public health and hospital management, as learned in the classroom, in a practice setting.

The practice experience occurs in a carefully selected health organisation approved by Program Coordinator and is supervised by HSA faculty and an immediate supervisor/mentor. This takes into account the transition from education to professional practice. At the conclusion the students are required to present their project as a poster presentation.

Students will be evaluated during each course on the basis of;

1. Formative assessment which is a mix of the tests, end of course examination, class and home assignments, class participation, interactive discussions, practical exercises, field works and/or group works, end of course examination, depending on the course outline (ongoing assessment)

2. Summative assessment based on the end of semester examination Summative assessments are held at end of semesters and comprises of semester examinations paper each.

Health Services Academy abides by its strict merit-based criteria with absolute transparency to select its students for the DPH program.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

The candidate should possess one of the following qualifications or an equivalent degree from a recognized university or accrediting body.

• MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery)
• BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery)
• Pharmacy (Bachelor’s in Pharmacy)/ D. Pharmacy (Doctor of Pharmacy) or M. Pharmacy (Master’s in Pharmacy)
• BSc Nursing (Bachelor of Sciences in Nursing)
• DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine)
• Master’s Degree in a relevant subject such as Anthropology, Business Administration, Economics, Human Nutrition, Microbiology, Physiology, Psychology, Public Health Engineering, Sociology, Statistics and Zoology

WORK EXPERIENCE

The candidate should preferably have one years of full-time work experience (in the case of medical doctors, after the house job) in public health-related fields in either the private sector or the public sector, including the armed forces. For students performing extra-ordinary during viva/interviews, the experience can be waived off by the admission committee.

AGE LIMIT

There is no Age-limit restrictions for admission in this Program.

DPH ADMISSIONS

NTI institute of health management has its own Admissions Committee, comprising of Program Coordinator, the Registrar, a Senior Faculty Member, and one nominated alumnus/alumna. The Admissions Committee has the responsibility for the selection of applicants to be admitted to the Program. It establishes procedures for the timely review of applications to the Program. Deferrals of admission are at the discretion of the Admissions Committee. The selected candidates from the Admissions Committee will be exempted from any test or interview.

FINAL SELECTION

The applicant’s acceptance is contingent upon the receipt of all required documents including official transcripts. The Admissions Committee is responsible for identifying those students with missing documents and/or credentials which do not meet eligibility standards.