Impact of the use of the Red Lotus Critical Health Promotion Model as a pedagogical framework on health promotion graduates' professional practice: A mixed methods study

Abstract

Issue Addressed: The Red Lotus Critical Health Promotion Model (RLCHPM) is designed to support critical health promotion practice. This study investigated the impact of the use of the RLCHPM as a pedagogical framework for competency-based university curricula on the practice of graduates from health promotion programs from an Australian regional university. Methods: A mixed methods study was undertaken, including an online survey of all 195 graduates from 2008 to 2016, followed by semi-structured interviews with a subset of respondents. Results: There were 95 survey respondents and 10 interviewees. More than half of the survey respondents reported that the model impacted health promotion programs they are involved in, however, less than a quarter felt it impacted workplace policies. The impact was significantly higher for those with higher levels of knowledge about, confidence in using, and perception of utility of the RLCHPM, and stronger alignment of their practice with critical health promotion values and principles. Graduates' embodiment of the model's values and principles in practice enhanced the impact of the model. Factors that limited the impact included participants' implicit use of components of the model without explicit reference to the model, and the incongruence between participants' professional practice ideals and those of their workplace context. Conclusions: The use of the RLCHPM as a pedagogical framework for university health promotion programs positively impacted graduates' practice within the Australian context. So What?: The RLCHPM could be used as a pedagogical framework in universities to develop competency-based critical health promotion curricula to enable graduates to progress critical health promotion practice.