The Age Of Modern Medical Miracles

In this assignment I am going to describe the origins of public health in the UK from the 19th century to the present day. I am also going to compare historical and current features of public health.

While both medical care and public health work to improve the lives of many people, there are several distinctions between the two fields. Healthcare providers such as nurses and doctors are responsible for diagnosing and treating illnesses for individual patients. The care ranges from minor injuries to severe and chronic diseases. Meanwhile, public health strives to improve the well-being of a population. Public health advocates for the overall “promotion and prevention” of diseases before it even becomes an issue for healthcare providers. Public health encourages people to adopt healthy lifestyle choices and strives to control the outbreak of diseases. Although public health is often overlooked in the grand scale of medical care, it is undoubtedly the main aspect in ensuring that the overall health of a community is prospering.

Public health as it is implicated in the lives of the community – it is important to conceptualise what this might mean. Moreover, public health has seen as a multidiscipline perspective in which it can be defined on many levels, and I find that it could be elusive to understand its meaning. By simple understanding of public health, I refer to an approach derived by Winslow (1920) and Baggott (2000).

Human Resources Services Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW) is a program that was created to help America build a health care workforce. The Bureau of Health Workforce is eager to improve the public health by expanding access to quality health services and working to achieve health equity (“Bureau of Health Workforce”). May 2014 was the month and year HRSA was created (“Bureau of Health Workforce”). The Bureau of Health Workforce was developed through the department of Health and Human Services. The Bureau of Health Workforce combines programs that were already administered through the Bureau of Health Professions and the Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service “Bureau of Health Workforce”.

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" (1920, C.E.A. Winslow). This therefore infers public health is the preventing and controlling of disease within communities, to prolong life and promote health through organised society. The keys aspects of public health …

The following international, national, and local agencies are aimed at keeping the public safe while seeking optimum health and well-being for all citizens involved. They provide assessments, develop policies, assurance, meet unmet needs, and enable access to health care (McCowan, 2013). They hone communities’ capabilities to respond effectually to health issues by shielding and endorsing the health of the community and its residents (McKenzie & Pinger, 2016-b).

The national system responsible for the health and welfare of United States citizens is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “HHS is charged with regulating health care and overseeing the health status of Americans” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008, p. 56). A newer division, Office of Public Health Preparedness was added after September 11, 2011 to assist with preparing for bioterrorism at the state and national level (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008). The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) has eight agencies and is

Public health is positioned as one in light of the fact that public health is central to 21st century medicinal services and shares the same general objectives as whatever is left of the health care framework - lessening sudden death and minimizing the impacts of ailment, incapacity, and damage furthermore gives financial and social advantages to the area, due to some degree to expanded profit.

While most people generally categorize war as a deathly arena consisting of gunfire, the stench of rotten corpses, and the cries of trauma of soldiers; war can be seen as a time for prosperity and growth in the medical profession. The lack of resources in battlefield hospitals, cause people to believe that treatment options are limited. However, history has shown that these limited resources provide an outlet for creativity and exploration, the seeds to advances in the medical profession. During the American Revolution, more casualties were due to illness as opposed to gunshot wounds, opening up the eyes of medical professionals that new ways for disease prevention were needed. Additionally, before World War II biomedical research was limited

The earliest activity of public health focused on state and local health department practices. Charles Chapin developed a survey that analyzed the impact of the state health departments on local ones. The result of this study indicated the impact was poor. From this study, he formed preventative services and rated state agencies on their effectiveness in carrying out these services. Local Health Departments are where the ‘rubber meets the road.’ These agencies are established to carry out the critical public health responsibilities embodied in state laws and local ordinances and to meet other needs and expectations of their communities. With these establishments playing such a pivotal role in the public health realm it is necessary that administrator’s like Mrs. Ashley are working towards rural health

Public health means so many things, in the past it was called “health for the poor”, “washing your hands”, and taking care of “vulnerable populations” (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015 p. 4). In essence those are good definitions, but it is more than that definitions, public health is considered a

Public health was entirely unheard of before Ms. Wald. Instead of treating the sick and injured, Wald thought many problems could be prevented with education, the basis of public

Public health power influences are constantly growing. During the twentieth century majority of the expansion happened for public health power, because of the federal government’s position in primarily focusing on protecting the public in food and drug safety, environmental protection, and occupational health and safety, and many others. The Federal government influence stretched higher levels when the federal government purchase a major part of personal health care services through the Medicare and Medicaid titles of the Social Security Act after 1965 (Turnock & Atchison, 2002).

The 21st Century has seen the healthcare system struggle with challenges such as an increase in chronic conditions, an increase in government spending on public health, and emerging threats such as global health security and antibiotic resistance. On the positive side, more people have gained access to care. To deal with these emerging issues as well as existing challenges, we need an effective public health workforce. The public health has the role of protecting the health of citizens. This could be through health promotion and lobbying for increased access to care. To address the problem of the rise in chronic ailments, public health has a role of creating awareness on chronic conditions, their symptoms and management. This is because these conditions are expensive to treat and drain the resources of patients and their families. Public health should therefore educate the public on the importance of screening and conduct these screening services for early diagnosis and prevention of chronic diseases. Another role of public health in the 21st Century is to provide and use evidence based practice in providing clinical services. This would help in addressing some of the emerging challenges such as antibiotic resistance.

Kaufman, S. R. (2015). Ordinary medicine: Extraordinary treatments, longer lives, and where to draw the line [Electronic].