FIELD VISITS: FIELD REPORT

WRITING
EVAH MAINA
 FIELD VISITS
• Structured field visits provide students with an
opportunity to apply skills and concepts learned in the
classroom in a community setting. In order to focus the
students' attention on local environmental/occupational
problems, field visits to local factories, polluted areas or
other sites of interest should be organized.
• The class should be divided into subgroups of 5-6 persons.
• Each subgroup should develop observation questions or
tasks to accomplish.
• A checklist may be a useful tool to guide and systematize
student investigation.
 Examples of field visits
• Market
• Water works and treatment plants
• Sewage treatment plants
• Refuse disposal sites
• Industries and food processing plants
• Residential areas
• Water sources
• Hotels and restraunts
• Construction sites
 Field visit tasks
The following questions could be asked
• At the sites observed, what are the common
exposures that may cause health effects?
• Identify potential methods for exposure
measurement (in this case, technical students
could practice using sampling equipment).
• Consider potential measures for health effects.
• Consider problems in designing a research or
programmatic intervention.
• Discuss prevention and control strategies.
• At the end of the field visit, the whole group
should be brought together to discuss
subgroup observations, findings,
recommendations and conclusions.
• Field visits also offer an excellent opportunity
to develop skills and practice in report writing.
• Following the visit, students can be asked to
prepare a detailed report which addresses the
questions posed during the visit by the
questionnaire, checklist or observation.
 Preparing for a field visit
• Prepare field visit package
Visits are more effective if participants are
provided a package of information in advance:
 information about schedule
 accommodations
 contact people
 information about each site, including, where
possible, brief background information and
plans; a simple form for recording information;
and a list of questions and issues as per
objectives of visit.
a) Prepare field visit information package
The organizers should provide participants information
about the logistics of the field visit: schedules,
reservation confirmation numbers, phone numbers of
sites and hotels.
b)Prepare site information package
The site information package orients participants to the
site in advance of the visit. Depending on what
information is available, it may include: plans and
photos of each site; basic organizational information
about the site (client name and address, mission
statement, client/customer load, size, date, designers,
etc.); description of special features or processes or
other items of interest. Whereas measured plans are
best, these are not often available.
c) Prepare visit worksheet
Students should have a worksheet for taking
notes during field visits.
Checklist should be developed: The purpose of
the checklist is to remind participants of the
key issues and to provide a form that can easily
be assembled into the trip report.
NB/A successful worksheet directs participants
to the agreed-upon focal issues without
burdening them with unnecessary paperwork.
Participants should understand the
relationship between filling out the checklist
and filling out the final report.
 WRITING FIELD VISIT REPORT
• Introduction
• Objective (s)of the trip
• Field observations and findings
• Conclusion
• Recommendations.
 Assignment
• Read public health Act cap 242
 International health regulations and their
relevance to health
• The International Health Regulations (IHR) are
an international legal instrument that is
binding on 196 countries across the globe,
including all the Member States of WHO.
• Their aim is to help the international
community prevent and respond to acute
public health risks that have the potential to
cross borders and threaten people worldwide.
 Brief History of the International Health
Regulations (IHR)
1851: first International Sanitary Conference, Paris

1951: first International Sanitary Regulations

(ISR) adopted by WHO member states

1969: ISR replaced and renamed the

International Health Regulations (IHR)

1995: call for Revision of IHR

2005: IHR (2005) adopted by the

World Health Assembly

2006: World Health Assembly vote that IHR (2005) will enter into force
in June 2007

International Health Regulations 12

• The IHR, which entered into force on 15 June
2007, require countries to report certain
disease outbreaks and public health events to
WHO.
• Building on the unique experience of WHO in
global disease surveillance, alert and
response, the IHR define the rights and
obligations of countries to report public health
events, and establish a number of procedures
that WHO must follow in its work to uphold
global public health security.
 The purpose and scope of IHR
• To prevent, protect against, control and provide
a public health response to the international
spread of disease

• To establish a single code of procedures and

practices for routine public health measures

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 Public Health Emergency of
International Concern (PHEIC)
Definition (Article 1):
“public health emergency of international concern means an
extraordinary event which is determined, as provided in these
Regulations:
(i) to constitute a public health risk to other States through
the international spread of disease and
(ii) to potentially require a coordinated international
response”

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Is an event notifiable to WHO?

• Is the public health impact

of the event serious?
• Is the event unusual or
unexpected?
• Is there a significant risk of
international spread?
• Is there a significant risk of
international restrictions to
travel and trade?

International Health Regulations 16

 Core Capacity Requirements
Countries must have capacities “to detect, report and respond”
to risks in general, and to those at international ports, airports
and land crossings:

• core capacity requirements for surveillance and response

• core capacity requirements for
designated airports, ports and ground crossing

International Health Regulations

17
 Capacities at three levels

1. the local community level

2. intermediate public health response
levels
3. at the national level

International Health Regulations 18

 Capacities at the national level
• Capacities for assessment and notification:
(a) to assess all report of urgent events within 48 hours;
and
(b) to notify WHO immediately (within 24 h assessing a
PHEIC) through the National IHR Focal Point
 Capacities for public health response:
(a) – (h) to determine the control measures, to provide
support, to provide direct operational link, etc.

International Health Regulations 19

 Notification and reporting requirements
under IHR
• Notification is based on the identification within a State
Party’s territory of an "event that may constitute a public
health emergency of international concern" (PHEIC).
• This non-disease specific definition of notifiable events
expands the scope of the IHR (2005) to include any novel
or evolving risk to international public health, taking into
account the context in which the event occurs.
• Such notifiable events can extend beyond communicable
diseases and arise from any origin or source.
• This broad notification requirement aims at detecting,
early on, all public health events that could have
serious and international consequences, and
preventing or containing them at source through an
adapted response before they spread across borders.
• When a State Party identifies an event as notifiable, it
must be notified to WHO immediately, i.e., within 24
hours after having carried out the assessment of
public health information related to the event.
• Such notification will include details of any health
measure employed in response to the event as well as
accurate and sufficiently detailed public health
information available, including case definitions,
laboratory results and number of cases and deaths.
• The four decision criteria to be used by States
Parties in their assessment of a public health
event are:
(1) the seriousness of the event's public health
impact
(2) the unusual or unexpected nature of the event
(3) the risk of international disease spread; and
(4) or the risk that travel or trade restrictions will be
imposed by other countries. In essence, the
events which must be assessed are those that
may fulfil one or more of the four decision
instrument criteria, and the events which must
be notified are those that meet at least any two
of the criteria therein.
 THANK YOU
QUESTIONS???