1. Medical Sciences and Nursing Sciences (1&2)
The main aim of these units is to update and standardize diagnostic, treatment and follow- up skills, with a focus on holistic patient management. Since doctors and nurses are trained in a variety of settings, there is a need to draw up protocols for good practice, especially with regard to the recognition and effective treatment of common conditions, including those of the young, elderly and disabled. Issues of the environment, women's health, mental health, and geriatrics will receive particular attention. The Nursing Science course will follow the same general topics as the medical science course; however, the information, reading material and instruction will be designed specifically for nursing applications.
2. Classical Epidemiology
The aim of this course is to give participants a good grounding in the classification, distribution patterns, and determinants of common diseases in Palestine and the use of routine clinical data to study epidemiological phenomena. The emphasis will be on quantitative methodologies.
3. Social Epidemiology
The second of two units, this course is an essential complementary module to the first. It consists of a study of the social, environmental and cultural context of disease, and the use of anthropological methods to understand the socio-cultural and environmental context of health care provision, including the patient-health care provider relationship.
4. Communications & Health Education
This unit will comprise of health education and health promotion components. Communication on individual and community level will be examined. The emphasis will be both theoretical and practical, and participants will be expected to acquire certain skills in communication and facilitation. Interactive and non-interactive media for health promotion will be looked at in the Palestinian context.
5. Planning & Management
The aim of this course is to introduce students to a new modern-day approach to management and leadership styles. This unit will address the main problems encountered in the planning and management of PHC at the local, regional and national levels. Beginning with the identification of salient features of the current health care sub-systems at each of the three levels, the course will then focus on: planning, evaluation, problem- solving, team work, networking and scheduling, and record keeping skills, among others, demonstrating how such skills might be adapted to the local setting.
6. Advanced Epidemiology
This course will concentrate on advanced methods in both classical and social epidemiology. It will emphasize the integration of various epidemiological methods for investigating health phenomena.
7. Principles of Primary Health Care
This unit will account for the international as well as local experience of primary care, looking in particular at various national experiences as well as at the influence of such bodies as WHO and the World Bank on health care delivery systems. The application of the three pillars of Primary Health Care: community participation, inter-sectoral linkages, and equity will all be examined within a Palestinian context.
8. Research/Project
This unit sets out to solidify the participants' understanding of the theory and practice of research into health care programs and will build on the quantitative and qualitative approaches developed in the epidemiology courses. In addition, it will introduce students to methods of information generation and collection from the clinical setting and of data organization. The course will also provide methods for monitoring, evaluation and future planning. Students will be expected to complete a supervised project, preferably relevant to the solution of practical problems encountered in the field. This research will form a part of their assessed work.