Program On Community Health Education example essay topic

I graduated from Hue Medical College and earned degree of medicine doctor, specializing in general medicine. However, I did not become a clinician. My days in the college hospital often made me think about prevention of diseases and injuries. I encounter so many patient who suffered from preventable diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, diarrhea, cholera, parasites, etc. Many cases died of the lack of knowledge about health care and related-health problems.

My thoughts wandered to the areas of public health. I loved the science of diagnosis and treatments, but I needed a career that helped a large number of people, emphasized prevention and primary care rather than tertiary care. What I want to do is to empower people to increase control over and improve their health. Therefore I decided to pursue a career in community health education.

My first work was information, communication and education (IEC) on population and family planning at Committee for Population and Family Planning of Phu Yen province. I took part in United Nations Population Fund supported programs linking IEC (UNFPA) in the province. The programs attempted to increase contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) and to reduce the growth of population. As a consultant, I provided people with information about family planning, consulted and helped them choose appropriate contraception. I also participated activities such as providing family planning services, condoms, I UDs, pills for the people in remote and rural areas. I was a coordinator on the project VIE / P 08 of UNFPA in the province, coordinating mass organizations such as Women's Union, the Peasant Union, the Youth Union in population and family planning program.

Working for the committee exposed me to a different side of health care. Population and family planning program achieves the goals when people change their attitude and behavior to small family size. I realize what the people want is information; no information - no choice. Along with my duties at the committee, I attended many seminars and workshop on information, communication and education in the field of family planning. I had many opportunities for expanding and updating knowledge in public health.

All these activities provided me with knowledge and interests on public health, especially health education. My work at the Committee as well as my experience led me to work at Center for Health Education of Phu Yen province, belonging to department of health. My duties are to educate and inform people about health, illness, disability, and ways in which they can protect and improve their health through health education interventions. Most importantly I worked on health communication and education which involved editing a newsletter called "Health Information", published monthly. I prepare for the publication by collecting, correcting, revising or adapting articles, stories in order to make suitable for health education in the context of the province. Daily I also use the Internet to access update health information, provided them for the mass media, health worker.

My special interests are to write computer programs and I have continued to accomplish medical dictionary English-Vietnamese by Visual Basic. During my work at the center, I have received many unexpected questions about health care from the public. Many young people have not known about HIV / AIDS, STDs, malaria, etc. I realize that community health education plays a key role in prevention medicine. This has urged me to design and carry out health education interventions in communities.

I developed a particular concern about health education interventions in communities. I recognize that changing the behavior of people is challenging, but I also know of the immense personal satisfaction that can come from such work. In Vietnam, health education is new conception, and all universities and college nationwide have no academic program on health education. In the United States, at the present the program has studied in many universities and college. I believe that I have enough qualifications and experiences to study the master of public health program in community health education in the U.S. In my studies toward a master's degree, I hope to gain knowledge and skills necessary for developing health education interventions in Vietnam.

Master program would be valuable to me in several ways. First, the program on community health education would provide me with the knowledge and skills I am eager to acquire. Second, earning a master's degree in the U.S. would advance my career goals by adding to my skills, both theory and practice, in health education. Ultimately, I study master program to help me go on advanced study in the field and contribute to developing the cause of community health education in Vietnam.