I have created this blog for theories of health education, a course I am currently taking at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, as a community health education major. The purpose of this blog is to provide information I have collected in regards to valid health related resources given to me by health professionals. For each website I have listed what I feel is the target audience and purpose of the website, as well as the pro's and con's. After conducting my research I have found all of them to be fairly helpful although I would like your point of view on them as well! so please, feel free to post a comment regarding your thoughts on the following health related resources.
WEBSITE:
Medline: A service of the U.S. National Library Medicine and National Institute of Health
TARGET GROUP/PURPOSE:
• This website created more for educating the public because it is very informative
• Gives insight on a variety of prevention methods.
PRO’S:
• Interactive tutorials:
• Video’s of surgical procedures: Offers great insight on hundreds of surgeries ranging in severity from brain or heart surgeries to ligament or muscle tear reconstructive surgeries. By far the coolest website I’ve come across!! I want to be a surgical nurse so this is right up my alley! I will definitely be visiting this website daily!
• Clinical trials- informing people of new treatment and drugs.
• Diversity of culture and language and acknowledges differences in education by providing a medical dictionary and encyclopedia.
• Information is highly organized within each topic: topics are broken down into categories that are clearly labeled and identifiable. (Ex. Health topics are broken into categories by location, disorders, therapy, ect.)
CON’S:
• Visually the website is not appealing.
• Could use tabs for each category, giving each topic its own page. Doing this might make things appear more simplistic to someone who is overwhelmed with so much information.
• Could provide job related information.
MY CONCLUSIONS:
I found this website to be very informational and a great educational tool for both health educators as well as the general public. It has an spectacular feature which allows you to watch actual surgical procedures which I find facinating because it is my goal to become a surgical nurse. I think I value this website the most out of the list because of its easy acessability and its high educational content.
WEBSITE:
National Institutes of Health U.S Department of Health and Human Services (The Nation’s Medical Research Agency)
http://www.nih.gov
TARGET GROUP/PURPOSE:
• This website is targeted more toward health professionals who already have a baseline of knowledge.
• I didn’t think this website was as helpful because a lot of the information seemed to be geared towards individuals with a higher level of education than I.
PRO’S:
• Covers a wide variety of topics including news, grants, health, research, and institutions.
• Offers a search bar to find more specific/or hard to find information if needed.
• Provides steps for funding for research
• Offers email updates on certain information
CON’S:
• May be overwhelming to the general public.
MY CONCLUSIONS:
I really enjoyed this website as well although it covers health care so in debth it can be a bit overwhelming, especially for someone who is unfarmilar with these concepts. For the health educators perspective this is a great website that can be used for a variety of things. One of the most interesting topics this website focused on was the research portion; which gives a great insight to to world of health research.
WEBSITE:
American Public Health Association (APHA)
http://www.apha.org
TARGET GROUP/PURPOSE:
• The target group gives great information for professionals but is easily accessible for the general public and offers them a large spectrum of information.
• Concentrates on advocacy and supporting public health.
PRO’S:
• Visually appealing
• Information is organized in a simplistic manor.
• Lots of great information on advocacy
• Offers blogs and Podcasts
• APHA does a great job of making themselves advertising and making themselves known. (twitter, facebook, blogs)
• Provides a world health calendar
• Provides local and global world health news
CON’S:
• I really did not have any; I thought this site was great for its target audience.
MY CONCLUSIONS:
This is a great website for the general public as well as health educators. This website is clearly set up for easy navigation and the information provied is easily understood. I really enjoyed this wesbite because there was quite a bit of information in regards to advocacy, which was something I didn't find a lot of on the other websites.
WEBSITE:
World Health Organization (WHO)
http://www.who.int/en
TARGET GROUP/PURPOSE:
This website is definitely designed for professionals or those pursing higher education. Its use will increase world health knowledge.
PRO’S:
• Good set up for main page. They have links to the left and then highlights of health news.
• Provides the role WHO takes in government, resources and planning, people and offices.
• Organized list of all countries and provides mortality and burden of disease, health service coverage, risk factors, health systems, inequalities in child health for each country. As well as providing data and stats for each country.
• Lists all programs and projects
CON’S:
• Not as much information provided for current events
MY CONCLUSIONS:
This was my least favorite website out of the bunch, I felt it was more difficult to navigate and find the information I was looking for. Although, it may have been more difficult to navigate once the information was collected it was very informative. I enjoyed viewing all the programs and projects going on in each country of the world.
HOW TO DISTRIBUTE HEALTH RELATED RESOURCES CORRECTLY:
When distributing resources as a health professional it is important to do your own research on the resources you are going to distribute. Once you feel confident in a given reserach you must make sure it is applicable and addresses all aspects of the given health issue.
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