Public Health Department Annual Assessment Report to the College 2016-2017

Abstract

The Health Sciences department Public Health program 2016-17 annual assessment report to the College of Health and Human Development for the Office of Academic Assessment and Program Review. Continuing an ongoing indirect cross-sectional assessment of student preparedness to enter the public health work force, the department administered the “Competency Assessment for Tier 1 Public Health Professionals” student survey at both the entry and exit stages of their study at CSUN. Detailed results of the student self-evaluations are included in the report, comparing entry to exit scores, with the conclusion that “students are starting our program with an awareness of each of these domains and leaving our program with a solid knowledge of most of these public health domains. Overall, we see substantial improvement between the initial and final courses; increases in overall mean scores between the two courses ranged from .93 to 1.19, on a 4-point scale.” It is noted, however, that an “area that shows a potential need for improvement is financial planning and management skills.” In addition, the department continued an ongoing assessment of student oral communication proficiency via rubrics filled out by internship preceptors, with results from Fall 2016 to Spring 2017 all showing high scores ranging from 4.1/5 to 4.7/5 (Very Satisfactory to Outstanding). Plans for 2017-18 include a continuing use of the Competency Assessment for Tier 1 Public Health Professionals survey, the submission for approval of making HSCI 314 a required course (a loop closing measure), the continuation of internship preceptor evaluation of student oral communication skills, and the administration to alumni of a newly developed survey to “see if they are currently working in the field of public health or pursuing an advanced degree in public health and to assess how well our program prepared them for the field of public health or graduate school.”