2021: A new focus on prevention and wellbeing in health

128 NEW STUDENTS

57 STUDENTS FROM OVERSEAS

STUDENTS REPRESENTING 12 COUNTRIES With the challenges of 2020 seemingly under control, 2021 started well but with the continued challenges of the pandemic as countries sought to ensure vaccination supply and roll-out to the population. The arrival of the Delta variant, causing challenges worldwide, arrived in Australia with ensuing lockdowns, ongoing challenges to mental health and the acceleration of vaccine roll-out.

Associate Professor Helen Jordan took on the additional role of MPH Coordinator in March in a year where, driven by the pandemic, the MPH had its biggest enrolment ever with a total of 381 students starting and a total of 585 in the whole program. The immediate focus was ensuring the wellbeing of both staff and students in what was to become another rollercoaster of a year.

Many of the MPH staff and students have been involved in the COVID-19 effort both in Australia and overseas, involved in contact tracing but now also vaccine roll-out and administration. And our MPH community regularly listened to or watched with pride our leaders Professors Nancy Baxter and Tony Blakely on the radio, television or kept updated via Twitter knowing that we were in knowledgeable hands. Ever prepared, MSPGH developed and ran the Pandemic Preparedness elective, in a team led by Associate Professor Linda Bennett, which ran for the first time in 2021 attended by 35 students. Osayande (Osa) Osagie (MPH 2013) was appointed Head of Medical Services at the Federal Capital Territory, Hospitals Management Board, Abuja in Nigeria and is featured in theDFAT Australia Awards Global Tracer Facility- Alumni contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Dr Rosalind McDougall was awarded a Dean’s Fellowship in early 2021 which will support thelearningand teachingof interprofessional ethical decision making in healthcare settings.Ros will engage with Sydney Health Ethics, a global leader in health ethics education,andwillform a community of practice focused on online health ethicsteaching. A key outcomeforour students will be the development of a cross-schoollearningopportunity to support interprofessional ethical decision making.

The MD/MPH program, first launched in 2013, is now proud to have trained a total of 66 MD/ MPH students. One of these students is Grace Newman, who in March this year, as part of team with Professor Rob Moodie, past MPH student Siân Slade and MD/MPH Jasmine Davis together with leads from the Royal Australian College of General Practioners (RACGP), launched the Social Prescribing Student Collective. This is part of an international approach based on and in collaboration with the UK Social Prescribing Champions Scheme. Launched on the World Health Innovation Summit platform, this group has now grown to include 19 medical schools across Australia.

“The most rewarding part of my teaching is hearing students’ feedback about the impact of learning bioethics. For many MPH students, engaging with bioethics opens up a different way of thinking. In the core and elective ethics content in the MPH, we explore ways of analysing problems that are new to the majority of MPH students and completely different to the biomedical or quantitative disciplines that many are used to. It can sometimes be initially unsettling for students to enter this world of grey areas, value conflicts and longstanding questions – but engaging with the ethical dimensions of public health is fundamental. Like my colleagues and predecessors in ethics teaching in the MPH (Prof Lynn Gillam, Prof Marilys Guillemin, A/ Prof Dominique Martin and A/Prof Giuliana Fuscaldo), ethics is an essential part of training in public health. The ethical dimensions of public health work have never been starker for our students than in 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic meant that questions of balancing individuals’ autonomy with the health of the community became very real issues in our everyday lives. MPH students need transferable skills for navigating ethical challenges in their future public health work, and will continue to do so as the health landscape evolves.” Dr Rosalind McDougall

“The opportunity to complete the Master of Public Health at the University of Melbourne during my medical studies has provided me with strong a foundation of a systems-based and multisectoral understanding of health. Each unit has not only given me a greater appreciation for the complexities of health and our healthcare system but has equipped me with the passion and the skills to begin to address them. During the year we were able to establish the Social Prescribing Student Collective, a student group aiming to educate others and advocate for integrating social prescribing into our healthcare system. Social prescribing embodies the principles I learnt during the MD/MPH, taking a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to health and addressing the social determinants of health that inform a person’s presentation. We have been able to engage a variety of students from various disciplines in the movement towards an evidence-based, broader understanding of wellbeing and how it can be supported. Meeting people with such a variety of backgrounds and experiences has been such an enriching experience and one of my highlights of the past year. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to complete my Master of Public Health at The University of Melbourne in the formative stages of my career.” Grace Newman, MD/MPH Student Australia

“My MPH journey started in 2019 after my desire to learn more about how health works at a population level and how to develop projects with a global focus. I reflect fondly on some key memories, taking part in the GSA Lead Program (2019), Emory Global Health Case Competition (2021) and in my role as interim President of the Melbourne Population and Global Health Students Society in the last semester of my degree in 2021! As part of that role, in Semester 2, 2021, the MPGHSS held the First Annual Student Conference with the theme: “A New Era in Public Health: The Influence of Technology”. The theme emerged as COVID-19 forced us to rewire and reshape the way in which we live, work, study and play. We posed the question; given the unprecedented changes over 2020 and 2021, how have we been using technology to shape our understanding of, and work within, public health? Being part of the MPGHSS was a fantastic way to meet likeminded individuals and work together with a community focus. I strive to work towards reducing inequalities in healthcare throughout my career. I am very grateful to be part of a strong student alumni and wish anyone who may be considering the MPH to take the leap, you won’t regret it!” Mariam Hachem, Australia