Public Health Program Evaluation and Methods

This assignment focuses on the evaluation of public health programs. It requires students to demonstrate their understanding of different methods used in program evaluation, such as cost-effectiveness analysis, impact assessment, and stakeholder engagement. The assignment likely includes case studies or examples of public health programs and asks students to apply appropriate evaluation techniques to assess their effectiveness, efficiency, and impact on the target population.

Running head: MASTER IN PUBLIC HEALTH
Master in Public Health
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Topic 1: Leadership issues in the public health practice
Introduction
Public health is about the encompassing of multiple disciplines of healthcare such as
anthropology, biology, medicine, education and public health (Lawlor et al., 2015). I feel that the
leadership in the public health activities is important for achieving the success of the program. I feel that
the effective leadership in this domain would lead to an improvement in the community’s outcomes
through increased education, more disease prevention and enhancement of the current policy
development. The public health needs good leadership so that there is overall improvement of the health
care delivery system.
Discussion
Leadership issues in public healthcare
The leadership is important for implementing as well as sustaining the different levels of public
health programs (Bowling, 2014). The leaders are the people with great vision and they have a different
status quo (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015). The leaders are grounded with varying levels of values and they
have different levels of implementing them. I wonder that public health practice would be incomplete
without effective leadership. I have observed that the basic challenge of public health lies in the
prevention and equity of health services. There is issue with the vaccine availability, in which there is
need for adequate leadership skills (Betancourt et al., 2016). I have seen that there are leadership issues in
the smallpox vaccination and there are issues with the availability of heath for all. This has led me to
think about the leadership issues in public health and how it can be solved.
Relevance of leadership in public health practice
There are issues with the effective use of the public health information, which is one of the duties
of the public health leader. The leadership is needed in the areas of serious infection, Ebola virus, HIV
and others (Aarons et al., 2014). I feel that the leadership issue is vital to the smooth functioning of the
public health practice. I feel that the leaders are responsible for communicating the changing perception
of public health to the society. It is important to use the health care delivery system for the prevention of
diseases and this task should be done by the health care worker (World Health Organization 2015). The
public health managers should display adequate leadership skills so that they can improve the public
health awareness and public health research (Brownson et al., 2017). I have witnessed the fact that the
leadership is not adequate as it doesn’t fulfill the challenges of changed health care scenario. I have seen

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that the public health leaders do not take adequate research on the health care activities and hence there
have been global issues in the public health domain.
Reflection on the implications of leadership in public health
The leadership is important in the areas of public health since it is important to change the public
perceptions of the population concerning the various health issues. I feel that an inadequate public health
leadership would not help in reducing the disease burden of the community. I feel that the leadership
loopholes would prevent in enhancing the health standards of the entire population and there would be
lack of medical facilities in especially rural areas. I have noticed the fact that the public health managers
are in the need of constant upheaval. The leaders are responsible for heath reforms in the near future but if
there is improper leadership, then there would be issues with the reform of the public health scenario. My
opinions are that the public health leadership is important in future as this would lead to higher systematic
as well as technical situation of the public health. I feel that it is not only important to improve the range
of managerial and technical acumen so that the leaders can display accurate organizational expertise.
Conclusion
I feel that the public health leadership is in a rudimentary stage with the need of in-depth
requirement of the creation of leadership competency framework. The leadership is concerned with the
shared vision, and the act of motivating others. I have understood the fact that it is important to enhance
the public health leadership so that the public health goals are fulfilled.
Topic 2: Challenges faced during the evaluation of public health programs
Introduction
The effective evaluation of the public health programs is responsible for improvement of the
overall framework of public health in the countries (Drummond et al., 2015). The objective of the public
health programs is to control the outbreak of diseases and reduce the instances of disability, injury and
even death. I felt that the program evaluation is important for increasing the impact of the public health
outcomes. However, I have observed that there are several challenges that are faced by the practitioners,
which prevent the actual evaluation of the public health program.
Discussion
Evaluation issues in public health programs

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The public health evaluation program is aimed at the demonstration of the accountability to a
wide variety of stakeholders, who would include policymakers, local agencies, community leaders and
others that would implement the concerned programs (Cummins et al., 2016). The lack of program
evaluation would not help in the reduction of mortality and morbidity. It would also be unknown if the
money spent for program evaluation is being done effectively (Royse, Thyer & Padgett, 2015). However,
there is often lack of tools for checking of the health care programs. I have found that there are several
challenges when it comes to measuring the outcomes of the healthcare programs. It is difficult to measure
the project outcomes like the modifications in the community norms. There are also challenges
concerning the measurement regarding the prevention of the health care program (Loeppke et al., 2015).
The ultimate outcome of the programs may not be known and hence it may be an issue for evaluation of
the health programs. The public health program has multifactorial nature, which implies that the public
health issue has multiple contributing factors such as environmental determinants, economic drivers,
genetic influences and others (Grembowski, 2015). I have learnt the fact the public health programs has
may stakeholders and they have different perspectives which make them to view the public health
programs in a different manner.
Relevance of evaluation in public health programs
The evaluation of the public health programs
is important to know if the program has met its desired objectives or not. The public health programs need
to be implemented well and hence it is important to evaluate them on a regular basis (Wilkinson et al.,
2016). The program effectiveness is a serious concern and I feel that evaluation is one of the most
important mediums to do so. I feel that there are several issues while the cost effectiveness of the public
health programs are difficult to manage. There are instances when the financial records of the health
programs are difficult to find and hence they are difficult to evaluate. The value of the public health
programs would be measured in terms of cost efficiency and hence it is important to monitor them on a
regular basis.
Reflection on the implications of evaluation issues in public health
The lack of evaluation of the public health programs would prevent the program to reach its
desired objectives. I have felt that in the absence of adequate evaluation tools, the public health care
facility of the rural population would not going to improve. I strongly feel that the public health programs
should be strongly customized to be implemented in the rural scenario. I have also felt that the public
health programs would be useless in the long run, if there is no evaluation measures in the long run. There
would be loss of the financial resources, if the concerned public health program is not evaluated well.

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Conclusion
The public health programs should be evaluated on a regular basis so that the program meets its
pre determined objectives. The evaluation criteria are important so that the health program stays on track
and it has smooth execution. I have decided that I would devise suitable tools so that I am able to evaluate
the health care programs. This would enhance the evaluation patterns of the health care program.

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References
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Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I. I. (2016). Defining
cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and
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Bowling, A. (2014). Research methods in health: investigating health and health services. McGraw-Hill
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Brownson, R. C., Baker, E. A., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based public
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Drummond, M. F., Sculpher, M. J., Claxton, K., Stoddart, G. L., & Torrance, G. W. (2015). Methods for
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Grembowski, D. (2015). The practice of health program evaluation. Sage Publications.
Lawlor, E. F., Kreuter, M. W., Sebert-Kuhlmann, A. K., & McBride, T. D. (2015). Methodological
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Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2015). Public Health Nursing-E-Book: Population-Centered Health Care
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Wilkinson, G. W., Mason, T., Hirsch, G., Calista, J. L., Holt, L., Toledo, J., & Zotter, J. (2016).
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World Health Organization. (2015). Health Worker Role in Providing Safe Abortion Care and Post
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