Week 8 - Midpoint Reflection

MHST631 is the second last course I am taking in pursuit of completing a Master of Health Studies with a focus on Leadership. Coming from a clinical background with acute care experience, the course has been an excellent resource for me to initiate and develop a new perspective and appreciation for a different health dimension – health promotion. Combined with understanding social determinants of health, this course has allowed me to look at health issues and their determinants with a broader angle beyond individual behaviours and decisions and understand the root socioecological causes for those behaviours and decisions. For example, as clinicians, we are wired to automatically jump to conclusions and associate lack of exercise and poor diet with obesity or associate alcohol abuse with liver failure; however, while the latter conclusions are not inaccurate from a metabolic and disease management perspective, this course has taught me to look beyond those conclusions and consider the root causes of alcohol abuse or lack of exercise – an essential element of health promotion.

While progressing towards a broader understanding of social determinants of health and health promotion, I am also gaining knowledge of challenges the field has faced and continues to face in its pursuit of empowering every individual to take control of and achieve their best health – the ultimate aim of health promotion. Despite their existence for several years, proponents such as the Ottawa Charter, the WHO concept of health-promoting schools, and other health-promotion initiatives have yet to be implemented at fully sustainable levels.

The biggest challenge for me has been shifting my perspective as an acute care clinician to gain a broader perspective of the socioecological culprits behind the disease processes we routinely encounter in clinical care. This challenge was reflected in my performance on assignment one. This is an area that I want to improve and maximize by the end of the semester.