TY - JOUR
T1 - War and peace in public health education and training: a scoping review
AU - Wandschneider, Lisa
AU - Nowak, Anna Christina
AU - Miller, Marta
AU - Grün, Anina
AU - Namer, Yudit
AU - Bochenek, Tomasz
AU - Balwicki, Łukasz
AU - Razum, Oliver
AU - Cunningham, Colette
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - Background: Armed conflict and war are public health disasters. Public health action has a crucial role in conflict-related emergencies and rehabilitation but also in war prevention and peace promotion. Translating this into public health training and competencies has just started to emerge, especially in Europe. Methods: We conducted a Scoping Review to map and identify the role of public health education and training of public health workforce relating to the prevention of war and promoting peace, as reflected in the scientific literature. We searched in PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science Core Collections as well as the reference list of included material in English, German and Polish. Focusing initially on the European region, we later expanded the search outside of Europe. Results: We included 7 publications from opinion pieces to an empirical assessment of curricula and training. The educational programs were predominantly short-term and extra-curricular in postgraduate courses addressing both public health professionals in conflict-affected countries as well as countries not directly affected by war. Publications focused on public health action in times of war, without specifying the context and type of war or armed conflict. Competencies taught focused on emergency response and multi-disciplinary collaboration during emergencies, frequently drawing on experience and examples from natural disaster and disease outbreak management. Conclusions: The scientific discourse on competences in public health education for times of war and for the promotion of peace, predominately focuses on immediate emergency response actions. The prevention of war and the promotion of peace are missing foci, that need to feature more prominently in public health training. Public Health Education and training should ensure that war prevention and peace promotion, as well as public health action in times of war, are included in their competencies for public health professionals.
AB - Background: Armed conflict and war are public health disasters. Public health action has a crucial role in conflict-related emergencies and rehabilitation but also in war prevention and peace promotion. Translating this into public health training and competencies has just started to emerge, especially in Europe. Methods: We conducted a Scoping Review to map and identify the role of public health education and training of public health workforce relating to the prevention of war and promoting peace, as reflected in the scientific literature. We searched in PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science Core Collections as well as the reference list of included material in English, German and Polish. Focusing initially on the European region, we later expanded the search outside of Europe. Results: We included 7 publications from opinion pieces to an empirical assessment of curricula and training. The educational programs were predominantly short-term and extra-curricular in postgraduate courses addressing both public health professionals in conflict-affected countries as well as countries not directly affected by war. Publications focused on public health action in times of war, without specifying the context and type of war or armed conflict. Competencies taught focused on emergency response and multi-disciplinary collaboration during emergencies, frequently drawing on experience and examples from natural disaster and disease outbreak management. Conclusions: The scientific discourse on competences in public health education for times of war and for the promotion of peace, predominately focuses on immediate emergency response actions. The prevention of war and the promotion of peace are missing foci, that need to feature more prominently in public health training. Public Health Education and training should ensure that war prevention and peace promotion, as well as public health action in times of war, are included in their competencies for public health professionals.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85201939636&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12889-024-19788-w
DO - 10.1186/s12889-024-19788-w
M3 - Article
SN - 1471-2458
VL - 24
JO - BMC public health
JF - BMC public health
M1 - 2303
ER -
