A short course in writing for publication for health promotion practitioners

Abstract

Issue addressed: Many good health promotion programs are implemented and evaluated but not published. The potential for the field to learn from these programs is therefore reduced. This article describes the design of an intervention to increase skills and confidence in writing for publication amongst health promotion practitioners in the Eastern Metropolitan Region (EMR) of Victoria. Methods: Health promotion practitioners from Community and Women's Health funded organisations in the EMR participated in the intervention, which was based on peer learning principles through a Short Course with key design elements. Two workshops where held over a two month period with a peer review process in between. Results: Of the 26 novice participants in the workshops, 14 wrote an article that was published in some form. At four weeks post the course, another four had an article in draft format which they planned to submit in the near future. All participants indicated a desire to continue to write for publication. Conclusions: Expecting health promotion practitioners to publish their work has had limited success in the past. This relatively short intervention has shown that to succeed, practitioners require a range of supports to enable them to gain the skills and confidence needed to write for publication.