By Public Health is meant the collection of disciplines whose unit of analysis is a population or community rather than an individual patient, and whose field of action includes the promotion of health, the measurement and prevention of disease, as well as the fostering of equity, efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of health care services. It is intended that there be a strong emphasis on vocational development, i.e. enabling people already on career tracks to advance their skills, opportunities and effectiveness in their current jobs. To this end the course will be designed as a part-time course, and the selection process will place store on experience and maturity. Graduates in Medicine and the Health Professions other than Medicine, including Nursing, wanting to broaden their skills and fill roles beyond professional boundaries, or to develop research skills. Non-health science graduates, e.g. from the social, management or environmental sciences, who want an entry point into health sector work, or to strengthen their work in their own disciplines.
Some places are available to students from other countries, particularly in Africa.
Individual modules will be open, subject to any limitation on numbers, to students from other postgraduate degrees at UCT, and to candidates who want single semester courses not for degree purposes. Principles Principles emphasised in the course are population based approaches to health the use of knowledge and evidence based methods to solve public health problems engagement with the political, economic and ethical dimensions of social choices underlying health care and research the objective of achieving equity in health, including the importance of the primary health care approach in health systems development. Public Health Masters degrees are relatively new in South Africa. However, graduates of such a programme could be employed across the whole range of social sectors with health functions, viz. Some graduates will continue to provide clinical services with a greatly enhanced population perspective.