Introduction:Engaging in respectful, evidence-based dialogue on controversial public health issues is an essential competency in undergraduate public health education, where future professionals must be able to navigate sensitive topics with diverse interest holders. In the current political context, however, such discussions can be challenging for students, underscoring the need for structured educational approaches that develop skills in critical examination, debate, and constructive communication. This study evaluates the impact of participation in PHC3603 Critical Issues in Public Health on students' confidence in their ability to engage in productive conversations on controversial public health topics, including with individuals holding differing viewpoints. Methods:Study participants included undergraduate students enrolled in PHC3603 in the Fall 2023 semester (n = 64). PHC3603 is an undergraduate course that utilizes multiple learning modalities, collaborative learning, and the creation of a welcoming class environment to help students develop the array of skills needed to meaningfully engage in productive discourse on challenging topics. Students completed a self-reflective survey in the first and last week of the course that included fourteen Likert-type and two open-ended items. Mixed-methods analysis was completed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and inductive qualitative content analysis. Results:Findings demonstrate significant increases in students' perceived confidence on all quantitative measures. Qualitative findings complemented the quantitative results by illustrating students' enhanced confidence in engaging in structured discussions on controversial public health topics, including improved abilities in argument construction, critical appraisal of evidence, and application of the ARE framework. Students also reported gains in socio-emotional competencies, such as open-mindedness, empathy, active listening, and maintaining respectful and composed dialogue during challenging discussions. Discussion:Findings highlight effective strategies for improving student confidence in engaging in reasoned discourse around controversial public health topics and offers evidence on effective methods for implementation in higher education. Findings further present an opportunity to increase awareness of the importance of developing student confidence and skills related to engaging in productive, evidence-based conversations on divisive public health issues.

IntroductionAs mental health challenges rise globally, arts engagement offers an evidence-based strategy for promotion and treatment. However, cross-sectoral US policy efforts at this intersection remain limited and largely top-down.MethodsThis study employed constructivist grounded theory to explore conceptions of arts in mental health advocacy among stakeholders actively engaged in cross-sectoral practice - artists, public health practitioners, and municipal leaders. Semi-structured interviews were held with 44 participants that represented each of the three primary sectors and spanned work across national and local initiatives.ResultsThe data yielded five theoretical categories: Knowledge Needs, Skill and Tool Needs, Policy Needs, Considerations for Advocacy Engagement, and Strategies for Advocacy. These categories informed the development of the IMPACT Theory, a grounded theory that outlines pathways for mobilizing equitable and effective advocacy. Findings emphasize the need for increased stakeholder preparedness, public awareness, and policy mechanisms that support funding, access, and cross-sectoral integration.ConclusionTo develop actionable and informed advocacy, efforts should increase advocacy preparedness for invested stakeholders, prioritize the time and energy of advocates, and work to improve public awareness about arts and health. This theory offers a framework for advancing arts in mental health policy and may inform broader interdisciplinary advocacy efforts.

The mental health crisis in the United States has been exacerbated with the emergence of the loneliness epidemic and resurgence of mental health inequities. To address the scope of this crisis comprehensively and equitably, a socioecological, cross-sectoral approach is necessary. While arts in mental health strategies have been employed internationally and nationally for preventative and rehabilitative mental health support, there remains limited knowledge of policy in the US to sustain and expand arts in mental health practices. Subsequently, this review sought to understand what priorities and strategies are employed in public health policies that seek to engage the arts to address mental health in the United States. Fourteen databases — inclusive of Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and PolicyFile — were searched alongside a comprehensive grey literature search. Included documents were originated by a US organization or agency, included a mode and form of arts participation, had a focus on mental health, maintained a public health purview, pertain to the United States, and can be considered a policy document. Of 4,958 identified documents, 29 met inclusion criteria and were included. Following extraction, the evidence revealed several salient results: (a) the relative nascency of arts in mental health policy documents in the United States; (b) that policy recommendations primarily center on creating sustained, collective action and leveraging funding; and (c) that the arts sector alongside the arts and health sector are primarily leading policy work. Current momentum in the United States offers a “policy window” as there is alignment, as evidenced in this review, amongst national policy makers, the prevailing mental health crisis, and opportunities for arts in mental health policies as a viable solution. As such, this work can be mobilized to strategize how to best engage or promote the engagement of local artists, mental health practitioners, arts in mental health researchers, and policy makers in the development of arts in mental health policies moving forward. Future work should seek to intentionally build on areas of sustained effort to effectively catalyze future work towards developing legislative, regulative, or even litigative cross-sectoral, arts in mental health policies.

IntroductionRecognizing and addressing health inequities among minority populations are pivotal to public health. Further, public health strives to understand the complexities between race and health without limiting discussions around race as a trivial variable. This commitment toward equity demonstrates considerable similarities to Critical Race Theory (CRT) which led to the creation of the Public Health Critical Race (PHCR) Praxis to instill CRT within public health. However, the literature on how public health education incorporates critical race studies remains limited. The goal of this study was to examine how public health curriculum currently aligns with the PHCR praxis and meets public health's goal of health equity.MethodsThis qualitative study employed document analysis to evaluate academic syllabi from CEPH-accredited MPH programs. Stratified random sampling was applied across two sampling pools, Schools of Public Health (SPH), and Public Health Programs (PHP). Course overviews, course objectives, course curricular information, and course policies were identified and extracted from each syllabus for analysis. A total of 53 syllabi were obtained from a final sample of nine public universities and one private.ResultsThrough inductive and directed content analysis, a priori themes of Structural Determinism, Voice, Critical Approaches, Ordinariness of Racism, Social Construction of Knowledge, Intersectionality, Disciplinary Self-Critique, Primacy of Racialization, Race as a Social Construct, Race Consciousness, and their respective categories arose as salient. Two new themes, Antiracism Practices and Culture of Inclusivity, were also present.DiscussionThis study is the first to explore public health education's current curricular practices concerning CRT and antiracist praxes. The results confirm the interwoven nature of public health education with critical race studies, as all principles of PHCR praxis were present. However, the prevalence of these principles varied, suggesting gaps in the alignment of public health curricula and CRT. It is essential that public health educators ensure that the foundational competencies students are expected to display align with public health's goal of health equity. This work can equip MPH programs and public health educators with the ability to revise or bolster their current curricular and instructional efforts to support the pursuit of health, racial equity, and social justice.

Arts-based practices are positively associated with the prevention and management of adolescent mental health, and community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods are shown to enhance equity in mental health interventions. This study sought to understand how CBPR approaches to research are used to assess arts-based interventions for adolescent mental health in the United States. Five databases (Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) and Google Scholar were searched. The included studies investigate adolescents (ages 10-19), included an arts-based practice, and occurred in the United States. Of 2,810 identified articles, 21 meet inclusion criteria and are included. Extracted components included forms of art, mental health focus, points of adolescent engagement, parental engagement, adherence to CBPR principles, and demographics. Art forms included dance/movement (n = 2), literary arts (n = 3), media (n = 4), music (n = 3), theater/performance (n = 3), and visual arts, craft, and design (n = 12). Five mental health categories represented the included studies-General Mental Health (n = 9), Anxiety/Depression/Suicide (n = 6), Social Support/Loneliness (n = 2), Trauma/Resilience (n = 3), Emotion Regulation (n = 1). Studies prioritized minoritized populations and strongly adhered to the principles of CBPR. This review offers a comprehensive understanding of how diverse forms of arts participation are leveraged to address and mitigate the complexities of adolescent mental illness.

The significance of mental health inequities globally is illustrated by higher rates of anxiety and depression amongst racial and ethnic minority populations as well as individuals of lower socioeconomic status. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these pre-existing mental health inequities. With rising mental health concerns, arts engagement offers an accessible, equitable opportunity to combat mental health inequities and impact upstream determinants of health. As the field of public health continues to shift its focus toward social ecological strategies, the social ecological model of health offers an approach that prioritizes social and structural determinants of health. To capture the impacts of arts engagement, this paper creates an applied social ecological model of health while aiming to advocate that engaging in the arts is a protective and rehabilitative behavior for mental health.

There are several challenges and opportunities in health education in global health. Given the field’s rapid expansion, demand for including systems thinking and One Health (a unifying approach that considers human, animal, and environmental health) in global health courses has recently increased. Simulation activities provide an avenue to attain and assess learning objectives that foster critical and systems thinking. This study carried out a One Health simulation activity in an undergraduate global health course, conducted a focus group discussion, and obtained responses from written questionnaires from students who participated in the activity. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results show that the One Health simulation was instrumental for students to understand the complex interactions between different actors and stakeholders in global health systems. The One Health simulation also improved class dynamics, peer-to-peer interactions, and collaborations in the remaining part of the course. The activity helped assess two of the critical thinking learning objectives of the course, and there was some evidence that student agency and confidence may have been improved. Evidence shows that the activity helped students understand the principles of systems thinking and apply them in complex scenarios. Findings support including interactive simulation activities in global health courses to include elements of system science and One Health into classroom activities innovatively and engagingly.

IntroductionPublic health has declared a commitment toward diversity as a whole, with a commitment toward addressing and dismantling racism being at the forefront. Although public health has admirably taken on this mission, and the foundational principles of public health align with social justice and health equity, public health as a discipline is vastly behind other fields in integrating and utilizing critical race theorizations. Of particular concern is the lack of critical race theorization within public health education materials. Public health education serves as a precursor to public health practice and situates topics and competencies that are essential to one’s foundational public health knowledge and skillset, thus the use of strong theoretical groundings is critical in public health education.ObjectivesTherefore, to explore the current landscape of public health educational research that employs critical race theories, this study sought to conduct a scoping review investigating the current literature of public health pedagogical, instructional, and curricular efforts that utilize race and antiracist theorization principles as a means to administer public health education. More specifically, we sought to investigate how have faculty and instructors published their integration of race theorization in public health curriculum/instruction within the United States since 2011.ResultsWe found 18 examples from peer-reviewed literature of curricular, pedagogical, or instructional practices and strategies that integrate critical theories of race, including contemplative pedagogy (n = 1), antiracism (n = 3), Public Health Critical Race praxis (n = 4), Critical Race (n = 5), critical service-learning/community engagement (n = 2), ethnic studies (n = 1), and intersectionality (n = 2).ConclusionThese articles present a wide breadth of innovative approaches to infusing critical race studies within public health higher education, ranging from individual assignments to course design and implementation to institutional culture change, thus demonstrating the multifaceted nature of critical race studies within micro-learning communities and macro-discipline practices. Identifying theoretically grounded, exemplary models and scholarly recommendations of pedagogical, instructional, and curricular practices provides readers the opportunity to borrow from successful practices and implement concepts of race, racism, antiracism, intersectionality, and more into their classrooms.

Accurate interpretation of radiographic images is critical to diagnosing clinical patients. Remote instruction in radiology has become more common at veterinary colleges as academic institutions struggle to fill open veterinary radiologist positions and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to gather the feedback of fourth-year veterinary students via pre- and post-study surveys (n = 45) and focus groups (n = 7) about a newly implemented 2-week long radiology rotation. Ninety-eight percent of students reported having taken an online course before, and on both pre- and post-study surveys, students commonly reported feeling interested, determined, and attentive. On average, students reported that they were neither more nor less engaged than they would have been in an in-person course and that they understood the material neither better nor worse than they would have in an in-person course. Students reported that the key to their success was primarily hard work; secondarily, instructor availability and student ability were important. Students did not rate luck as having much influence on their success. Although diagnostic imaging can be a challenging subject to master, students effectively learned this subject through online instruction. They provided feedback for the course's continued improvement; their comments centered around improved interactivity, including providing automated quiz questions' answers and increased instructor availability. Data collected in this study will help to guide further development of the radiology course.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pivot to distance learning left many higher education institutions scrambling to find the resources to shift materials online and instructors making significant modifications to their courses to adapt. This study is the critical initial step in explaining any relationships between the responsive move to remote learning and academic performance and stress, anxiety, and depression. An eight-month longitudinal cohort study design with an action research methodology was conducted over four waves from June 2020 to January 2021. Participants had the option to be involved with semi-structured, in-depth interviews via Zoom. The qualitative results from the in-depth themes include: health & wellness, relationships & connectedness, transition home, classroom changes, learning & participation, extra-curriculars, COVID-19, virtual challenges, academic performance, and self-regulation. Thus, through thoughtful and intentional accommodations, instructors and students may create a new digital space for learning to improve upon motivational barriers and retaining content.

Several communities are implementing trauma-informed, community-level approaches focused on addressing/preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), yet most community resilience definitions from published articles are based on acute traumas. This scoping review aims to determine how community resilience is defined and operationalized within the context of chronic/complex traumas. METHODS We performed a rigorous, comprehensive literature search using multiple databases. RESULTS The 38 included articles addressed multiple types of chronic traumas, including historical trauma, poverty, minority stress, mass incarceration, and ACEs. A variety of definitions of community resilience were cited, several of which stressed the ability to thrive despite risk factors and the safety and wellbeing of residents. Few articles operationalized community resilience within the context of ACEs, suggesting significant gaps in the literature. CONCLUSION This review can serve as an important building block to develop expanded definitions of community resilience for chronic traumas and assist communities in promoting community-wide responses to ACEs.

Instructional design models that are used by many higher education institutions to guide course design are insufficient for the unique opportunities of blended learning. Many established models are not practical tools for college faculty to use independently in the design of courses. Models like A.D.D.I.E., use a linear approach that can translate more easily into practical stages of course design, yet are historically rooted in the rapid prototyping of educational technologies or for designing military training and are inadequate for the complex demands of higher education, where learning outcomes are geared toward higher order thinking, scientific/clinical reasoning, and a syntheses of ideas into new knowledge. Presented here is an instructional design model that strategically incorporates the nuances of higher education, yet is practically framed to assist faculty with design challenges.