units

SRH5047

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

print version

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

Monash University

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Organisational Unit

School of Rural Health

Coordinator(s)

TBA

Offered

Moe

  • First semester 2016 (Online)

Synopsis

Environmental change can have both direct and indirect effects on human health. Exploring issues such as global climate change and loss of biodiversity, this unit will examine relationships between human health and anthropogenic environmental change (environmental change accelerated by human activity). Questions underpinning students' exploration will be: What is the relationship between the health of the environment and the health of human communities? Do ecological changes affect human health and well being? What are possible solutions? How do we act in the face of lack of evidence, gaps in knowledge, uncertainty and conflicting evidence. The emphasis of the unit will be on global and regional environmental change and how this manifests at a local level in both individuals and populations. The role of health professionals and policy makers will be explored and students will reflect on their own personal viewpoints and practice as professionals and as global citizens. Students will examine local and regional issues relevant to their professional practice and place these in the larger global context. Multidisciplinary approaches to an ecological perspective of health - the concept of a web of interconnected, interacting and dynamic relationships which embeds humans in their physical environment - will be applied to examine issues such as: health effects of global warming; health effects of loss of biodiversity; vector-borne and zoonotic diseases and agricultural pollutants.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. Discuss specific examples of direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic environmental change on human health;
  2. Critically analyse processes of interaction between anthropogenic environmental change and human health at a local, regional and global level using ecological perspectives on health and the physical environment;
  3. Examine the socioeconomic context of environmental change and health in differing vulnerabilities and rural and urban populations;
  4. Critically analyse strategies for dealing with lack of evidence, conflicting evidence and uncertainty;
  5. Reflect on the impact of studying this unit on your own professional practice and personal perspectives; and
  6. Undertake an ecological analysis of a selected issue and develop recommendations that will help to improve practice.

Assessment

Case study analysis (1,500 words) (20%)
Reflective essay (3,000 words) (40%)
Group discussion activities (2,000 words) (40%)

Chief examiner(s)