by Fiona O’Meara
After many years of working as a clinical physiotherapist in private practice, an opportunity arose to accompany my humanitarian, shelter delegate husband to take up a position on a longer term basis in the developing world.
Initially visa restricted for work, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to go back to study to equip me with the skills necessary to transition into project work in the global/public health arena. I investigated a number of different courses at different universities offering on-line education, but became aware of this course Masters in Global Health offered through the University of Manchester and the HCRI through information received from Red Cross. I subsequently chose to study through this institution because of its close involvement and interaction with the Red Cross and its strong connection with the humanitarian industry.
I also liked how the course was structured over three years. The first two years consists of online teaching, with four courses studied per year, the first year leading to a PG Certificate, the second to a PG Diploma with the final year consisting of a dissertation to gain the full Masters qualification. The curriculum is also broad and interesting, and covers epidemiology, health systems and markets, cultural approaches to health, ethics, disaster and program management and includes an introduction to research.
Each course studied involved 8 weeks of teaching with weekly formative assessment tasks followed by some form of summative assessment at the end usually an essay but sometimes multi-choice exams or group tasks. As I was new to the arena, I particularly found the weekly formative assessment tasks helpful to develop a deeper understanding of the learning material which helped considerably when it came to completing the summative assessment tasks.
The online discussion boards and occasional live classrooms allowed good contact with other fellow students and tutors and gave me a sense of connection to my fellow cohort, most of who were already working within the global health/humanitarian industry. The group assessment tasks allowed cross-fertilisation of ideas and also provided great practical experience with working across multiple locations and time zones with people from multiple cultural backgrounds and experiences.
My computer, writing, and research skills improved considerably and although I found the course load intensive, it was definitely manageable.
I have now completed the PG Cert and PG Dip in Global Health and am looking forward to having a short break to refresh before coming back to complete the final dissertation for the Masters qualification. I have already found my new knowledge invaluable, and have taken up project work in health service reform to gain some hands on project experience.
I would recommend this course both to those already working within the global health or humanitarian industry as well as to those like myself wishing to make the transition from a first world clinical background to a more global health relevant arena.