The degree program, started earlier this month, is the first of its kind to be offered among the U.S.-affiliated island colleges and is directed both at the current Public Health workforce in Micronesia as well as new students. Health officials expect a similar degree program to start at Palau Community College soon, and later at the College of the Marshall Islands.
COM-FSM is a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accredited community college.
Thirty students, from Pohnpei State Health Services and students enrolled in COM-FSM’s Health Careers Opportunities Program, attended the combined inaugural lecture given by Dr. Greg Dever, the Regional Coordinator for the Pacific Island Health Officers Association and Director of the Palau Area Health Education Center at Palau Community College.
Dignitaries at the lecture included FSM Secretary of Health and Social Affairs Dr. Vita Skilling, COM-FSM President Spensin James, COM-Vice President Jean Thoulag, Pohnpei State Health Services Director Dr. Elizabeth Keller, Dr. Brian Isaac, a former member of the COM-FSM Board of Trustees, and Drs. Giuseppe Cuboni and Hien Do, who both developed the Public Health Training Program at COM-FSM.
Dever, a clinical professor of Pediatrics at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, brought warm congratulations from Pacific Islands Health Officers Association President and Minister of Health Dr. Stevenson Kuartei and Palau Community College President Dr. Patrick U. Tellei.
PIHOA formally represents the ministers, secretaries, and directors of health of the U.S.-affiliated islands and has been supporting the development of the public health program at COM-FSM as well as the development of a proposed Registered Nurse Training Program at COM-FSM.
Palau Community College houses the Palau AHEC, a US federal health program administered by the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, which promotes developing health career programs in underserved areas. The Palau AHEC provided funding resources to COM-FSM to jumpstart the new COM-FSM public health program, Dever said.
“We at PCC congratulate COM-FSM and are a bit envious that you have started the first Public Health Training Program in the Pacific,” Dever said. “Following your lead, we are developing a similar program at PCC and with time hope to develop a like program at the College of the Marshall Islands.”
Dever explained to the students and dignitaries how the new training program developed with the help of Dr. Sitaleki Finau, formerly Head of the School of Public Health and Primary Care at the Fiji School of Medicine, who is now the Director of the Pacifika Program at Massey University in New Zealand. With funding through the Palau Community College Area Health Education Center, Dr. Finau worked with then Palau Director of Public Health Kuartei to develop Palau’s first Community Health Survey, which became the first step of Palau’s five-year process in developing its Strategic Public Health Plan, which formally rolled out in January 2009.
In partnership with the Palau and Yap AHECs, Dr. Finau and his colleagues at the Fiji School of Medicine conducted over 100-undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Public Health in Palau, the FSM, and the Marshall Islands, Dever said.
“Over 300-physicians, nurses, environmental health workers, health administrators, and nutrition workers were enrolled in Fiji School of Medicine Public Health courses,” he said.
Dr. Dever explained that the undergraduate courses were so popular, that at the urging of Drs. Finau and Kuartei, the Palau AHEC began a three-year process to develop undergraduate academic public health programs for the community colleges of Micronesia.
The new public Health curriculum went through the various academic approval steps at COM-FSM and was then approved by WASC in 2008.
Dever went on to say that next-steps will include developing similar Public Health Training Programs at Palau Community College and the College of the Marshall Islands.
“This is all part of PIHOA’s plan to work with the regional community colleges to provide accredited training for our health workforce,” he said.
Other PIHOA projects include starting a nursing program at the College of Micronesia-FSM, a dental nurse program for the region, and allied health programs, which include training in medical laboratory sciences, radiology, pharmacy, and physical therapy, said Dever.
