Evaluation of a competency based module in health promotion.

Abstract

The Discipline of Health Promotion at the National University of Ireland, Galway delivers a Postgraduate Diploma and Master's course in Health Promotion. While a core Research Methods module incorporates some teaching of evaluation research in health promotion, a need was identified for the further development of this component into a stand-alone module. This need was primarily driven by the development of competencies within the discipline of health promotion. Competency development within the field was a major theme of the Galway Consensus Conference (Allegrante et al., 2009) held by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) in June 2008. At this conference a number of competency domains were identified within the discipline and the conference organisers issued a consensus statement: 'Toward Domains of Core Competency for Building Global Capacity in Health Promotion: The Galway Consensus Conference Statement', (IUHPE, April 2009). Eight domains of core competency that are required to engage in effective health promotion practice were identified: catalysing change; leadership; assessment; planning; implementation; evaluation; advocacy; and partnerships .