HealthKnowledge Background
Background
HealthKnowledge has been created to support the continuing and professional development of those working in the fields of health and social care, voluntary organisations and others who wish to increase their public health skills by providing fast and easy access to quality learning materials.
HealthKnowledge was initially created to support Public Health Specialist Registrars and Multidisciplinary Specialists, who were taking the Faculty of Public Health Medicine Diploma and Part 1 Membership Examination. The content was developed from tutorials that had been used in a Learning Set to meet this goal. We had captured some excellent knowledge, which we needed to share with others who would benefit. Materials were collated, re-written and externally quality assured. And so HealthKnowledge was born!
The idea for HealthKnowledge came from those working within the Brent and Harrow Health Authority and was partly funded by the North West London Workforce Development Confederation. After the re-structuring of the NHS in 2002, Harrow Primary Care took over responsibility for the site using with some funding from the Department of Health. It is now an integral part of the Department of Health's 'Informing Healthier Choices' strategy and is based within the Workforce Capacity and Capability workstream.
Learning materials on HealthKnowledge
Since its inception HealthKnowledge has grown into a broader resource to support public health and more - it is for everyone involved in health care and social well being, voluntary organisations and others who just wish to know more about public health issues.
All material on HealthKnowledge has been written by specialists in their fields, and has undergone thorough checking and quality assuring through the peer review process by other professionals.
There are many different types of materials on HealthKnowledge that will enable individuals and organisations the opportunity to download the resources that suit their needs. There are PowerPoint slides with teachers' notes, there are interactive learning modules for the 'loan' learner and there are public health resources on HealthKnowledge that are designed to support those studying for the Part A Faculty of Public Health examination.
All the materials on HealthKnowledge are written as study aids and are not written as 'comprehensive knowledge transfer vehicles'. The aim is for those teaching to use the resources as a basis for training, and the slides have been put together in such a way that to use them to their best advantage they can be modified to include local data and information. Those people using the interactive modules will need to supplement their knowledge with reading as well as seeking out further information from sources and resources that suit their learning styles.
