Mapping health and work provision in healthcare and business degrees in England

Abstract

Ill-health currently keeps a quarter of the UK’s working age population out of employment, at a significant social and economic cost to both those individuals and the country as a whole. It is, therefore, essential that healthcare and business professionals have sufficient skills to manage the physical and mental health of their teams and support individuals to re-enter employment. This study looked at the extent to which six core health and work topics were included in the curricula and assessment of healthcare and business degree courses. It included a quantitative review of 221 healthcare and business degree programmes in England. This was supplemented with secondary analysis of existing literature on health and work education and qualitative interviews with course leaders in 38 universities. The study found that across all healthcare and business courses, there was relatively little explicit coverage of health and work topics in course curricula or assessment. When health and work was covered, most courses only included one health and work topic, and in some cases only a small component of a topic (such as managing stress, within the broader topic of self-care and resilience). The main reported reasons for this were a lack of space within curricula, little perceived demand from students and a view that some skills are best acquired in the workplace. There is a compelling need to promote the importance of work and health learning to both course leaders and students. Engaging regulatory bodies, whose degree standards play a major role in shaping course content, would also encourage Higher Education Institutions to prioritise health and work topics. There is also a need to conduct research with students to understand in more depth the health and work skills they acquire from their courses.