Embedded Spring: Public Health in the Caribbean
The Program
This course highlights Public Health in the Caribbean and facilitates cultural immersion while examining the role of various agencies in key national health programs in the given cultural and economic context.
This course highlights the history, structure, and practice of Public Health in the Caribbean, seen from the perspective of a Small Island Developing State. It explores the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the region, and how collaboration within and outside of the Caribbean region is leveraged to support in-country health responses. Key national health programs along with donor-funded and supported projects are examined, and their successes and challenges are analyzed in the given cultural and economic context. This is a Spring semester course with travel over Spring Break with 2 synchronous and 2 asynchronous class sessions. Students will be able to begin the coursework in January.
Program Locations
St. Lucia
Saint Lucia is an Eastern Caribbean island nation with a pair of dramatically tapered mountains, the Pitons, on its west coast. Its coast is home to volcanic beaches, reef-diving sites, luxury resorts and fishing villages.
Academics
This course involves interactive lectures guided by the instructors, facilitated discussions, online activities, group exercises, site visits, guest lectures, and group outings, and satisfies the requirement as a 3 Credit graduate elective course. It gives students first-hand experience of the way in which Global Public Health initiatives such as the CDC initiated Global HEARTS Initiative, the WHO's Universal Health Care initiative, and its Neglected Tropical Diseases Elimination Initiative and others are actualized in the real world. Such an experience will benefit students interested in Global Health work and working with diverse populations. The mixed mode of teaching allows students opportunities for cultural immersion while increasing their knowledge and scope of public health in the Caribbean.
On completion of this course which includes a required 1-week onsite component within a Caribbean country, students should be able to:
- Examine the structure and practice of public health in the Caribbean as related to the cultural and historical background of the region.
- Identify the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the Caribbean.
- Assess key country initiatives in Maternal Health, Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Vector Borne Diseases.
- Evaluate the role of local, regional, and international partnerships in health and their value to Small Island Developing States.
- Describe a given Caribbean country’s Universal Health Care System approach and analyze its strengths and challenges.
- Increase Cultural Competency/Humility by engaging with the culture and the people of the Caribbean.
- Apply experiences and concepts learned to local and global practice of public health.
Housing and Meals
Students will share rooms in a hotel. Breakfast is included every morning. Lunch will be provided at various sites and there will be a closing dinner. Students will be responsible for any other meals.
Scholarships
Faculty Leaders
Merlene Fredericks-James, M.B.B.S, M.P.H. Dr.PH, is an associate professor in the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health. With over twenty-four years as a public health specialist and clinician, Dr. Fredericks-James spent ten years leading the island of Saint Lucia’s public health response as Chief Medical Officer as a public health practitioner from 2010 to 2019. Currently, Dr. Fredericks teaches and advises Master of Public Health Applied Practice Experience and Capstone students. She is also the faculty coordinator of the new Online Master of Public Health in Global Health. Dr. Fredericks-James graduated from the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica.