PUBH610: Reflection on History and Principles of Public Health

This essay provides a student's reflection on the history and principles of public health, emphasizing the importance of historical context in understanding current and future public health practices. The reflection highlights the impact of past discoveries, such as Jenner's smallpox vaccination, on modern healthcare and discusses how understanding the evolution of public health is crucial for addressing contemporary challenges. It also explores the application of historical knowledge in formulating health policies and meeting competency standards in the field. The essay concludes that a thorough examination of past challenges and advancements is vital for promoting innovative ideas and ensuring the competence of public health practices in the future.

Running head: HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF DETERMINANTS REFLECTION 1
History and Principles of Determinants Reflection
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF DETERMINANTS REFLECTION 2
History and Principles of Determinants Reflection
The history of public health is significant and essential in understanding the role of
different health components and their outcomes. As a general field, it is derived from many
traditional ideas, experiments, growth of basic sciences epidemiology and even advancement in
technology. It is from the history that we are at the current state of health advancement. This
paper aims at reflecting on the extent to which unit content relates to the existing knowledge and
skills, and how the unit content will support future work in the field of public health, particularly
in meeting competency standards.
Consideration of unit content relative to existing knowledge and skills
It is surprising to note that most of the science we rely on today is dependent on what
happened a long time ago. In other words, the level at which we are today in terms of
administration, dissemination, and application of health is greatly influenced by what the
scientists of the past did or researched on. The 1796 discovery by Jenner that cowpox
vaccination was the appropriate solution to preventing smallpox has a present-day application
(Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014). This is because the practices and the information related to
science and use of nutrition together with immunization have a huge role to play in the modern-
day health sector. Among the populations of both developed and developing countries, the
concept of the early 1790s primarily impacts the lives of many people today. People are safe
from certain diseases or illnesses because they have undergone an immune making process that
was long ago discovered by the person we do not even know and ever seen him. It makes
sometimes think that may be in the present we are not doing much, we are sleeping too much, we
are too much into our comfort zones. I am surprised that in the past, with such low levels of
technology and advancement in literacy, an individual could discover that a particular disease

HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF DETERMINANTS REFLECTION 3
would be prevented by the introduction of the same microorganism that causes illness into an
individual in an inactive form (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014).
Public health history provides rationales to develop understanding and contemplation of
problems related to health and how to cope up with them. As public health specialist, we can
figure out and picture through the eyes of the past by understanding and being aware of how the
past societies handled the disease. Thus, it is the reason why all the societies across all
generation have been and continue accepting the reality of disease, illness, and death so that they
form concepts, strategies to manage them. Public health evolved through trial and error methods
with ever increasing knowledge in science, especially the science of medicine. The necessity of
organized protection of health increased as part of the community life development, especially in
urbanization and social reforms.
It is thus essential to note that the evolution of public health is a process that is in a
continuing process. Disease-causing microorganism change with the change in the environment
and the host (Rosen, 2015). For the individuals to face the future challenges, they need first to
learn from the past. Understanding of the evolution helps us navigate the word of public health
of today and the future (Baum, 2016).
Application to future practice and relationship to competency standards
The future practice of public health is vastly dependent on the history of public health. If
we want to determine the progress of the HIV in human body by next year or two years to come
we will need to observe progressively how the virus has been modifying itself all the way from
past generations. Tt is after observation that we will be able to conclude on the state HIV
(Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015). To understand correctly, we can say that the past acts as the
baseline. We can compare what we know in the history of public health to what we have at

HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF DETERMINANTS REFLECTION 4
present and to what we will apply in the future. It is impressive also to know that it is from the
public health history and its determinant that we can lay down strategies and formulate health
policies. According to Fee (2016), the competency standards in public that will be regarded as
updated should conform to what is present having been observed/analyzed from what was in the
past. Finally, an understanding of the experience of public health through careful examination of
evolution and context of the challenges faced in the past will play a vital role in promoting
innovative ideas that will conform to the current level and future competency standards (Šket,
Kukec & Artnik, 2017).
In conclusion, history of public health is very essential in modern and future
application of public health. The past cannot depend on itself, it greatly requires the past to make
itself competent.

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References
Baum, F., (2016). The new public health (No. Ed. 4). Oxford University Press.
Fee, E. (2016). Disease and discovery: a history of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and
Public Health, 1916–1939. JHU Press.
Rosen, G., (2015). A history of public health. JHU Press.
Šket, T., Kukec, A., & Artnik, B. (2017). The history of public health use of fluorides in caries
prevention. Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 56(2), 140-146.
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J., (2015). Public health nursing-e-book: Population-centered health
care in the community. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Tulchinsky, T. H., & Varavikova, E. A. (2014). The new public health. Academic Press.