Health promotion and disease prevention in primary care training: a Belgian framework from European guidelines (PROPELLER)

Given the crucial role of health promotion and disease prevention in primary care and the limited attention paid to it in current training programmes in Belgium, there is a need for capacity building for disease prevention and health promotion for primary care professionals. With this project, we formulate strategies for a better embedding of health promotion and disease prevention in primary care training, based on international standards and using a European network. The project is carried out by a multidisciplinary consortium of two academic partners from both language areas -University of Antwerp (UA) and Université Catolique de Louvain (UCL) - and the expertise centre on health promotion - Vlaams Instituut Gezond Leven (GL). The multidisciplinary research team consists of general practitioners, psychologists, educational experts and communication scientists. The research group can call upon an extensive steering committee of stakeholders with representatives of care users, educational institutes, professional organisations and policy makers from both parts of the country, both during the inventory phase and for the development of the strategy and dissemination. The inclusion of representatives of vulnerable target groups in the steering committee guarantees specific attention to the needs and input of these groups. The development of strategies is done in 3 phases, organised in 3 work packages. In WP1 we will elaborate a Belgian frame of reference for the provision and quality of education in health promotion and disease prevention through desk research. Existing international frameworks such as the core skills set for health promotion workers by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) are the starting point for a cross-professional frame of reference adapted to the Belgian context. In WP2, we will make an inventory of the existing provision and of the quality of health promotion and disease prevention in primary health care training in Belgium through a survey starting from the stakeholder network. This also includes a comparative analysis with training courses in other European countries, through the research group's connections to European networks. The trainings will be analysed based on the frame of reference developed in WP1 and Clement's didactic model. WP3 will focus on the development of strategies for the envisaged embedding of health promotion and disease prevention in primary care training based on the results of WP1 and WP2. By means of co-creation work sessions, the research group together with stakeholders will develop a draft strategy in the form of an educational package, which will be tested in a Delphi procedure. The dissemination to training institutes, professional and scientific organisations, target groups and policy makers and the creation of a support base for concrete strategies will take place together with the steering committee. A final symposium and publications in professional journals will contribute to this.

Keywords:VULNERABLE GROUPS

Disciplines:Health promotion and policy, Preventive medicine

Project type:Collaboration project