Teaching Social Determinants of Health in an Undergraduate Elective Course on Public Health Through Peer Wellness Coaching,Documentaries,and Self-Reflection

Abstract

Although there has been a surge of recommendations and best practices for developing undergraduate public health curricula, nascent research and national recommendations provide limited concrete guidance on evidence-based curricula practices to use and teach the social determinants of health framework to undergraduate students. This descriptive practice article will briefly describe the curriculum and instructional practices of a public health elective course within a U.S. university with a newly offered graduate program in public health but no formal undergraduate public health program of study and will specifically address some of the challenges and lessons learned in teaching the social determinants of health to ensure that the undergraduate student is “becoming an educated citizen.” To ensure that students are grounded, the social–ecological model is used weekly in class lectures and exercises to provide a visual framework through which the social determinants of health, starting at the individual level, can be illustrated through the various nested ecological systems of the model. Pedagogical approaches to using and addressing social determinants of health and health disparities include documentaries, peer wellness coaching, student engagement, and critical self-reflection. Student feedback and lessons learned are provided.