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Brighton & Sussex Medical School

Public health training opportunities

BSMS > Research > Primary care and public health > Public health > Public health training opportunities

Public health training opportunities

We see academic public health as an integral part of public health service, and encourage trainees at all stages to link to us proactively throughout the “life course” of their training.

At BSMS we encourage trainees to work with us in advance to plan a tailored programme of work that harnesses the extraordinary range of opportunities across BSMS and its host universities, the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Kent Surrey Sussex (ARCKSS), and partner institutions in local government, NHS and social care. Combined placements are encouraged (e.g. Health Protection Teams, NHS Trusts, Local Government) as in our experience this can add value both for the trainee and the organisations.

BSMS is a joint entity hosted by the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex.  The placement is based in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health on the University of Brighton’s Falmer campus, a few minutes walk from the University of Sussex site where our Department of Global Health and Infection is based. 

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About us

We are the only academic public health department across East Sussex, West Sussex, Brighton and Hove – spanning three upper tier coastal Local Authorities and the Sussex Health and Care Partnership (SHCP).   

As such we have a particular local interest in the coastal and rural aspects of health inequalities emphasised in the 2021 Chief Medical Officer’s report. This is also a core priority of ARCKSS, and we work closely with colleagues in Kent and Medway on this agenda. University Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust is newly merged acute NHS Trust with five sites spanning the coast from Chichester to Brighton, and closely linked with Sussex Partnership NHS Trust and Sussex Community NHS Trust. Through our strong and deepening partnership with East Sussex and West Sussex County Councils and Brighton & Hove City Council, we are uniquely placed to understand and address coast health inequalities at scale.

BSMS offers a highly regarded Masters in Public Health, and a range of postgraduate courses and modules for health professionals, and trains doctors and physician assistants. It has a central role in ARCKSS. The Department of Global Health and Infection has an international profile in infection, health protection and neglected tropical diseases. The University of Brighton has a wide portfolio of health professional training courses and research, which also spans social science and humanities.  

The University of Sussex has international strengths in development and sustainability, global health, social care and international education.

Our department

Read more about our Department of Primary Care and Public Health on our homepage.

Read more here >

Our training location

Unique selling points of our training location includes:

  • Friendly and supportive department attractively situated in Brighton with excellent public transport links. We are used to welcoming GP trainees and now looking forward to hosting the new generation of KSS public health trainees.
  • Opportunities to publish peer reviewed research with academic and practitioner colleagues.
  • A range of established domains of research to build on in collaboration with local partners in Brighton and Hove (mental health, substance use, sexual health), East Sussex (health inequalities and data science).
  • BSMS is an integral part of a large scale platform for placement and innovation for coastal health and inequalities work, and healthcare public health, building on newly reconfigured acute services in our coastal Integrated care systems (ICS) and colleagues with an established interest in the NHS/social care interface.
  • Embedded in the regional opportunities of ARCKSS, and opportunities to work closely with the theme leads based in BSMS and Sussex.
  • Teaching opportunities across the full range of health and social care professional training courses.
  • Strong ethos of patient and public involvement in research.
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Learning outcomes

An academic placement can provide opportunities to achieve a wide range of learning outcomes, especially in the context of joint placements with local authority or NHS partners.

However the commonest areas of core competence where an academic placement can make a distinctive contribution include:  

(a) Use of public health intelligence to survey and assess a population’s health and wellbeing.

(b) Assessing the evidence of effectiveness of interventions, programmes and services intended to improve health or wellbeing of individuals or populations. 

(c) Health promotion, determinants of health and health communication.  

(d) Healthcare and public health. 

(e) Academic public health.

We can provide enriching opportunities for teaching and training experience across the training lifespan, whether or not on placement with us. For example, trainees who have had health protection experience can teach and social care health professionals in training.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Person specification

We see academic public health as an integral part of public health service, and encourage trainees at all stages to link to us proactively throughout the “life course” of their training.

Pre- part A/B students may find a split placement best meets their needs, while more senior trainees may wish to spend a higher proportion of time in the Department.

Medical students require Individual Research Projects in their fourth year, and trainees may wish to plan for supervising one with support from our team, to meet a range of competencies. This requires advance planning.