Advocacy 201: Incorporating advocacy training in health education professional preparation programs

Involvement in advocacy is a responsibility of health educators, as identified by the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing. Of all the professional responsibilities, participation in advocacy-related activity is often neglected. This lack of participation may be due to the absence of advocacy and policy skills training in health education professional preparation programs. The lack of training may be attributed to various reasons, such as the university faculty being unsure about how to include students in advocacy work, students being unable to see the relevance of advocacy to their studied field or the lack of available time to conduct advocacy by students and faculty alike. This article will focus on promoting advocacy among health education faculty and students, and provide creative strategies to incorporate advocacy knowledge and skills into health education coursework. A review of common health education courses is provided with suggestions for relevant advocacy projects, course assignments and proposed evaluation strategies.