Programme description: Health promotion in a social pharmacy course: The Ghana experience
Keywords:
Community participation, Ghana, health promotion, pharmacy educationAbstract
This paper describes the introduction of a novel health promotion module within the undergraduate pharmacy programme. The module involved both classroom activity (mainly group work by students) and “outdoor fieldwork” in which they visited a local resource-poor community to learn about local perspectives of health and develop appropriate health promotion materials.
Ghana, designated by the United Nations as a low-income country, has typical health priorities, many of which could be addressed if pharmacists played a more prominent role in health promotion activities. The Faculty of Pharmacy in Kumasi (currently the only one in Ghana) is attempting to move away from its traditional lecture and laboratory science-based programme that is typical of many developing countries, to one which prepares students more effectively for a health care role in their local communities. The module was evaluated from the perspectives of faculty members, students and members of the local community.
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