Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
Undergraduate Education
The Second Major and Minor in Public Health provide a strong foundation in public health principles, enabling students to explore the field while complementing their primary area of study. These programmes introduce key topics such as epidemiology, health systems, environmental health, and health behaviour, helping students develop a broad understanding of the individual, social, and environmental factors that shape health outcomes. By integrating public health knowledge with their disciplinary background, students are prepared to contribute to health-related discussions and solutions in diverse professional settings.
The school supports the teaching of years 1 to 3 medical students in epidemiology, disease prevention and control as well as occupational health.
The school also offers courses under the NUS common healthcare curriculum across all four undergraduate health programmes, that is, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Medicine.
Pillar 1: Socio-ecological Determinants of Health
When we think about the things that impact health and well-being, we often think about genes, biology, health care professionals, treatments, pills and hospitals. However, health is fundamentally impacted by many factors that are not biomedical or clinical in nature.
In this foundational course, we will explore the various determinants of health and health behaviours, and examine how they might exert their impact. We will also introduce and practice various approaches to support people’s health in a holistic manner. These approaches range from behaviour-change strategies that can be used to improve various health behaviours to social prescribing that is meant to connect patients with non-clinical resources such as Active Ageing Centres or transport services.
We will go through the course in a sequential manner. We will first explore the concept of health, before examining social and ecological factors and their impact on health and health behaviours. We will then discuss health behaviours and introduce behaviour change approaches. The course will conclude with an overview of upstream forces impacting health and what healthcare professionals can do to address them. Plenty of examples, case studies and interesting activities will feature along the way.
Pillar 1 will be delivered in Year 1 Semester 1.
Pillar 4: Data Literacy equips students with the skills to understand and utilise scientific evidence in healthcare, supporting evidence-based practice. Through this pillar, students are introduced to epidemiological and biostatistical concepts. They learn how to critically appraise medical data and literature, enabling them to provide evidence-based recommendations to their patients.
To further enhance our students' knowledge, we organise workshops that focus on the design, monitoring, and evaluation of both overseas and local community health programs. These workshops provide valuable insights and practical experience, empowering our medical students to make a positive impact in communities beyond the classroom.