Essay: Professional Pathways in Health Science, Community School Event

This essay reflects on a health promotion campaign against obesity in a community school setting, where the author, acting as a public health officer, measured BMI and educated children. The essay explores the roles of different health professions, including recreational therapy, health promotion, public health, and health services management, highlighting their unique contributions to client well-being. The author reflects on the discrepancies encountered and the new insights gained from the event, particularly regarding the overlapping roles of health service managers and public health officers. The essay concludes with a personal reflection on the author's career aspirations as a public health officer and emphasizes the importance of inter-professional collaboration in providing quality health services. The essay also references key literature related to the discussed topics.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS IN HEALTH SCIENCE 1
Professional pathways in Health science
Name:
Institution:
Tutor:
Date:

PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS IN HEALTH SCIENCE 2
Brief description of the event, what it involved and the role i played on the day.
The event that I took part in was a health promotion campaign against obesity targeting
school going children. The event took place in one of the community schools. The program
involved educating children about the risk factors, consequences and management of obesity.
There were different professions each with a specific role. My role was to act as a public health
officer and I was to identify high risk children by measuring the BMI. After that, I would recruit
those who are at risk for education over the same. The event got me empowered about the roles
of different health professionals.
Brief description of the four professions and what they involve, based on what I learned
during the semester in class and through my readings.
In this unit, I have learnt that while working with clients, residents and patients, it is
important to consider different professions. The core four professions that one should consider
include therapeutic recreation, Health promotion, public Health and finally Health Services
Management. I have learnt that all these professions play a crucial role to achieve quality health
and well-being among clients. However, I learnt that each of the four professions is unique on its
own (King, Nancarrow, Borthwick, & Grace, 201). First of all, I learnt that recreational therapy
is a process which use recreation as well as other activity based interventions in order to handle
or meet the needs of patients, clients and cares based on the assessment. The second profession I
learnt in this unit is Health Promotion (Sklar, 2015). I learnt that Health Promotion is all about
assisting people to have more control and improve their health status. It creates important
information that can assist clients or patients improve their health status. Finally, I learnt about
the professions of Health service management and public health (Malatzky & Bourke, 2017).
Health service management is all about planning, directing and coordinating all medical and

PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS IN HEALTH SCIENCE 3
health related services. Public health on the other hand is the science that deals with protecting
safety and improving health status of people via education, policies and research.
Reflective description of the role played by the four professions in the event I
attended.
The recreational therapist played several roles. First of all, I observed him as he used
different modalities such as drama and music. Furthermore, the recreational therapist also came
with games that needed physical and mental engagement. I later learnt that the rationale of the
games is to ensure that proper physical, social and emotional well-being of the clients who are at
risk of obesity. At the event that I attended, I observed the health promotion officer engage in
different roles. First of all, the health promotion officer was the one who came up with policies
and strategies that would be implemented in the fight against obesity among school going
children. Secondly, the health promotion officer was collaborating with school heads to allow
children engage in the event. He was the overall manager of the health promotion program. The
health promotion officer was also advocating and lobbying for obesity prevention program
within communities. Finally, he was the one who developed necessary material like pamphlets
that were used during the event. The role of the public health officer on the other hand was to
identify children who are at risk of obesity by estimating the BMI. The public health officer
would then provide management skills for obesity such as physical activities and healthy diets.
He would then evaluate the event at the end to determine if it was successful or not. Finally, the
health service manager was responsible of financial management and the day to day activities of
the event.

PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS IN HEALTH SCIENCE 4
Discussion of any discrepancies and new things I learnt by participating in the event
There are different new things that I have learnt about professions by participating in the
event. Previously, I thought that it is the role of a physiotherapist to ensure physical wellbeing of
a patient. During the event however, I learnt that it is the recreation therapist who plays a big role
in ensuring mental, physical and social well-being of patients by using arts, games and music
(Ellner et al., 2015). Another discrepancy I learnt is that there exists an overlap of roles between
health service managers and the public health officers. While the Health Service manager
organize the day to day activities and resources to be used in health promotion, the public health
officers comes up with ways that the above resources are supposed to be used (De Lyon, Neville,
& Armour, 2016). This therefore means that health promotion is an intertwined activities that
needs keen attention from professions to achieve the set objectives.
Reflection about the main things I have learned about the career pathway I want to
pursue.
In future, I wish to be one of the best Public Health Officer. This unit about career
pathways has really assisted me in comprehending what exactly I should be doing. Furthermore,
engaging in the obesity education event has enabled me to get first-hand experience about what
awaits me in the future. As a public health officer, I have learnt that I have to engage with
stakeholders to identify risk factors for particular diseases and come up with interventions or
policies that can address the risk factors or diseases.

PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS IN HEALTH SCIENCE 5
Final conclusion
In conclusion, I have learnt that while working with clients, families and communities, it
is necessary to collaborate with other professionals. Initially, I thought it is only meant for the
public health officer to do such duties. However, this unit has highlighted other important
professions such as Health Promotion Officer, Health Service Managers and Recreation
therapists. I therefore feel that am equipped and I have necessary skills to work with different
professions to offer quality health services to the community.

PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS IN HEALTH SCIENCE 6
References
De Lyon, A. T., Neville, R. D., & Armour, K. M. (2016). The Role of Fitness Professionals
in Public Health: A Review of the Literature. Quest, 69(3), 313-330.
doi:10.1080/00336297.2016.1224193
Ellner, A. L., Stout, S., Sullivan, E. E., Griffiths, E. P., Mountjoy, A., & Phillips, R. S.
(2015). Health Systems Innovation at Academic Health Centers. Academic Medicine,
90(7), 872-880. doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000000679
King, O., Nancarrow, S. A., Borthwick, A. M., & Grace, S. (2015). Contested professional
role boundaries in health care: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Foot
and Ankle Research, 8(1). doi:10.1186/s13047-015-0061-1
Malatzky, C., & Bourke, L. (2017). When the social meets health in rural Australia:
confronting the disconnect. Health Sociology Review, 26(2), 190-203.
doi:10.1080/14461242.2016.1275978
Sklar, D. P. (2015). New Conversations About Health Reform and Academic Health Centers.
Academic Medicine, 90(1), 1-2. doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000000574