MHST 631 - Final Reflections

My overall experience with this Health Promotion course was positive. I experienced rich learning which I will carry forward and apply to my work.

One of the most impactful learnings for me was at the very beginning of the course where we learned about the COIN model and examined our positionality. Reading the positionality statements of my classmates gave me a rich understanding of my peers, their backgrounds, lived experiences, and worldviews. Reflecting on my positionality provided valuable insights into how my background, experiences, and identity shape my perspectives and interactions with others and may lead to upholding societal norms that are not inclusive. This awareness has deepened my understanding of the importance of acknowledging and reflecting on my positionality in both personal and professional contexts. This has inspired me to actively incorporate these principles into my work.

I enjoyed learning about the Ottawa Charter and the strategies for action. This provided a practical approach to thinking about health promotion. I also really enjoyed the community engagement unit. In my current work, I involve stakeholders in many initiatives and rollouts however these lessons have me thinking bigger about how I might work with stakeholders outside of my organization to plan and implement health promotion solutions. This course had me questioning how to look up and beyond the walls of the acute care environment which is my daily focus.  I enjoyed contributing to a library of community engagement strategies that I can use to create my own community engagement plans going forward.

This course was challenging.  This was the first course in the new Brightspace environment.  I found it less engaging than Moodle and the forum structure of individual posts made discussion and dialogue with my classmates more difficult than I have experienced in other courses on the other platform.  I also found that many of the concepts in this course were difficult to grasp and understand which was discouraging at times and tested my stick-to-it-ness.   I was struck by the impact of the social determinants of health on the overall health of the population and by how much work still needs to be done before we combat inequality and make health possible for all.

Thank you 631 for challenging me, teaching me, and leading me to consider health and its promotion from a whole new perspective.