Experiential community health promotion: the UiTM ‘smile’ experience / Budi Aslinie Md Sabri ... [et al.]

Objectives: To increase the awareness of oral health professionals/public regarding new norms in oral health services delivery via mobile applications, website, and webinars via communication engagement learning.

Methods: The programme was undertaken within the postgraduate Doctor in Dental Public Health course at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. The activity was in the form of a digitalized health promotion programme. The programme included didactic teaching, practical sessions, and experiential learning’. Students were introduced to the fundamentals of organising an Oral health Campaign, website development, app development, and virtual promotion. They were also advised on interagency negotiation and collaboration, advocacy skills, effective communication, content development, project management and evaluation processes.

Results: Engagement analytics indicated more than 49000 online viewers within the first 30 days of the event. Feedback by the stakeholders suggested that the programme was conducted successfully, however there were opportunities for improvement. The evaluation of the programme by participants showed that more than 90% agreed that the programme met its objectives in terms of aim, content, and effectiveness.

Conclusions: The experiential Community Health Promotion programme is able to achieve the expected learning outcomes from the perspective of both students and staff members.