Learning objectives

The first year of internship includes an initial exposure to health contexts of prevention at Health Districts, Addiction Services, “A.M.A.” Self-Mutual Aid Centers, Epidemiological Observatory, Territorial Operational Unit of the Italian Society of Medicine of Migration, Counselling centres for the individual, the couple and the family for the development of assessment and surveillance skills.

In the 2nd year, in the laboratory activities and in the professional internship, students will experience specific prevention interventions, screening, vaccination campaigns and counselling, and specific health education projects and interventions. They will begin to be familiar with the consultation of guidelines, reading of scientific articles.

The 3rd year is aimed at learning methodologies to promote health within schools, workplaces, care institutions, addiction recovery centres and specific settings such as prisons.

Students will challenge their selves in designing public health emergency plans with particular attention to the various forms and methods of risk communication to the population and information on environmental risk factors in all possible contexts of interest.
They will learn a multi-professional approach, the organization of services and territorial networks that promote health, the value of involving proximity figures and the creation of intersectoral networks and alliances, and the main aspects of planning and conducting epidemiological studies, and performing critical analysis of the results of published studies.

Learning outcomes
- Participate in vaccination campaigns to improve vaccination coverage of the population in the area.
- Apply the main methods of investigation of epidemics and pandemics.
- Participate in educational and screening campaigns.
- Identify community facilities and resources:
- Train in the manoeuvres of first aid, detection and monitoring of vital signs and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
- Carry out surveillance, prophylaxis and containment of infectious diseases.
- Design and implement actions of primary and secondary prevention of infectious diseases, occupational diseases, chronic degenerative diseases, cancer, etc.. using models and actions based on scientific evidence.
- Perform manoeuvres of first aid, detection and monitoring of vital signs and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and adopt during the preventive techniques (vaccination, screening, etc.) ways to reduce pain procedural.
- Design innovative educational methods, with social channels and languages closer to the target in order to spread the culture of prevention.
- Activate methodologies of network work, in order to integrate the work and health expertise with the social one.
- Conduct a motivational interview and counselling.
- Evaluate with qualitative-quantitative methods the outcomes of educational and counselling interventions.
- Collaborate in using the main information and communication technologies (ICT) that support health promotion and education and use the most common ones.
- Plan prevention programs in areas such as nutrition, fitness, weight control, smoking cessation, aging, addictions, and stress management to develop life skills.
- Activate networking methodologies in order to integrate health and social work expertise.
- Design and collaborate on health promotion interventions aimed at specific groups or patients and settings.
- Manage educational interventions to individuals or groups in different settings (community, school, etc.).
- Communicate in an appropriate way (verbal, non-verbal, written), establishing relationships with individual users, groups, families, businesses and the community for the purpose of promoting health.
- Apply individual and group counselling techniques for health promotion and education (empowerment).
- Collaborate actively in the dissemination of correct messages, supported by scientific evidence, countering the spread of contradictory and / or misleading information (fake news).
- Use, with other professionals, dashboards/databases/archives of health and administrative data to support and inform decisions.
- Seek the information needed to resolve problems or uncertainties regarding professional practice, critically selecting sources.
- Use and repurpose the self-study plan (contract learning) to identify own learning needs, seek opportunities, and demonstrate the skills achieved.

Learning assessment procedures

The evaluation of the internship activity will be:
- Formative: with the purpose of appreciating the evolution and progress of the student within the continuum of his/her path; the student becomes aware of his/her learning progress and helped to orient and design learning towards the expected educational objectives. It is carried out by the student (self-assessment), by peers and by experts (feedback). It is structured at the end of each internship experience through the formative evaluation form and an individual interview with the student.
- Certifying: consists of an annual evaluation, which documents the level achieved with respect to the objectives expected per year. This evaluation will be a synthesis of the formative evaluations of the single internship experiences, the profit achieved in the report, the self-assessment and the performance demonstrated during the internship examination.

The internship examination consists of a structured examination in stations, each of which evaluates in an objective and standardized manner specific technical, design, relational, and educational skills chosen from the pool of educational objectives related to the year of the course.
The final evaluation will be a collegial evaluation, formalized with the final internship examination, carried out by a Commission composed of the Coordinator of the bachelor degree, academic teachers and tutors.