School Health Education

Bioterrorism, drug-resistant disease, transmission of disease by global travel...there's no shortage of challenges facing America's public health officials. Men and women preparing to enter the field require state-of-the-art training to meet these increasing threats to the public health. But are the programs they rely on prepared to provide the high caliber professional training they require? Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? provides an overview of the past, present, and future of public health education, assessing its readiness to provide the training and education needed to prepare men and women to face 21st century challenges. Advocating an ecological approach to public health, the Institute of Medicine examines the role of public health schools and degree-granting programs, medical schools, nursing schools, and government agencies, as well as other institutions that foster public health education and leadership. Specific recommendations address the content of public health education, qualifications for faculty, availability of supervised practice, opportunities for cross-disciplinary research and education, cooperation with government agencies, and government funding for education. Eight areas of critical importance to public health education in the 21st century are examined in depth: informatics, genomics, communication, multi-cultural health, community-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and public health ethics. The book also includes a discussion of the policy implications of its ecological framework.

Empty Beds explores the early era of change in Indian education ideology as it pertained to student health at Sherman Institute in Southern California between 1902 and 1922. Beginning with the establishment of Carlisle Indian School in 1879, nonreservation boarding schools earned a reputation for being physically unhealthy environments for Indian children. By the turn of the century, a growing recognition of the importance of student health in Indian education began to emerge throughout the country. Unlike other nonreservation boarding schools, Sherman Institute tried to contain the devastating effects of epidemic diseases, accidents, and illnesses that were common during the early decades of the twentieth century. Strict compliance with new Indian Office preventive health policies and the implementation of school-specific health practices resulted in a relatively healthy student population compared with other nonreservation schools. The fact that the student population at Sherman Institute during the period between 1902 and 1922 evidenced good health is at odds with widespread perceptions that nonreservation boarding schools essentially functioned as death factories for Native American children. Empty Beds is the first comprehensive study of Indian student health at a nonreservation boarding school. Keller's exciting and provocative new conclusions will inspire a wide range of scholarship in this hitherto bypassed field of inquiry.