Significant Contributions to Public Health – Part I
For your final project, you will be researching an individual and their contribution to community and public health. Because of the size of this project, you will be doing the first part of this project in Week 3 then adding the final portion in Week 5. You have the option of writing a paper or putting together a presentation. Details are below the outline. Overall, you will be researching an historical figure in the public health world, their contribution to public health, and how their work helped shape the public health system. Furthermore, you will be analyzing how their contribution from the past continues to contribute to today’s public health system and how it might guide future work within the industry.
Follow this outline to help formulate your paper or presentation:
ACTION: Select one of the historical figures and their associated public health topic
- Margaret Higgins Sanger/Reproductive health
- Rachel Carson/Environmental health
- Franklin D. Roosevelt/Health care administration
- John Snow/Communicable and infectious disease
- Luther T. Terry/Smoking
- W. E. B. DuBois/Social determinants of health
- Larry Kramer/Health activism
- An individual of your own choice: YOU MUST OBTAIN INSTRUCTOR APPROVAL IN ADVANCE
ACTION: Research the individual’s background
- GRADED ELEMENT: Describe your selected person’s biographical background (i.e. experience).
- HELP: This can include resume elements such as birthdate, location, education, and brief statement of their contribution to public health. (Reminder: biographical information can be easily plagiarized. Please do not copy from your biographical websites. Paraphrase and/or quote and cite everything according to APA.)
ACTION: Research the barriers and issue of the time
- GRADED ELEMENT: Analyze the climate of the time period in terms of political, socioeconomic, environmental and technological context in which this person worked
- HELP: Think about whether this person was up against resistance or was their work welcomed. [For example, if you were writing on Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of slavery, you would note that slavery was prevalent and accepted at the time and the change was welcomed by some and rejected by others]
- GRADED ELEMENT: Examine the personal beliefs of your person that prompted this work.
- HELP: You are basically addressing the question: “Why did this person get involved with the issue at the time?” [In continuing the Lincoln example above, you would note that black people were considered property, not people; yet Lincoln believed everyone had equal rights regardless of skin color].
ACTION: Think about how this person overcame the barriers and issues
- GRADED ELEMENT: Examine how this individual overcame and/or confronted any adversities to succeed in his/her task
- HELP: Questions to consider: What did the person specifically do? Did they have any allies? How did their actions succeed/fail?
ACTION: Think about the importance of the contribution to community/public health at the time
- GRADED ELEMENT: Describe the final outcome of this individual’s contribution to community and/or public health
- HELP: Think about this question: What occurred as a result of this person’s action?
- GRADED ELEMENT: Explain what his/her contribution did for overall community and/or public health at the time
- HELP: Think about this question: What was the purpose for the community and/or nation? [In the Lincoln example, the explanation would involve a national recognition of human rights of all people, regardless of skin color]
- GRADED ELEMENT: Explain why this contribution was so important at that particular point in history
- HELP: Think about this question: What made this important for our nation? [In the Lincoln example, you would answer the question: Why was it so important that Lincoln freed the slaves?]
