Dear esteemed colleagues, students, and guests,
Welcome to the Department of Community Medicine at Kaduna State University, the bastion of public health practice and preventive medicine.
Here, we embark on a journey dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the health of communities. Through our commitment to rigorous research, innovative education, and community engagement, we strive to address the root causes of health disparities and empower individuals to lead healthier lives.
As we navigate the complexities of public health challenges, we stand united in our pursuit of excellence, integrity, and compassion. Together, we will harness the power of collaboration and evidence-based practice to create meaningful change and improve health outcomes for all.
I extend my warmest welcome to each of you as we embark on this noble endeavour together.
To identify prevalent health problems in the community and determine methods of alleviating them via training, service delivery, research and institution of programs/ interventions in collaboration with other members of the health team in order to improve quality of life of community members.
To be a foremost public health department that demonstrates excellence in teaching, research and service delivery in Kaduna state, Nigeria and globally.
These include professionalism, diversity, evidence-based research, mutual respect, transparency, integrity and responsiveness.
The Department of Community Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, Kaduna State University is one of the four (foundation) departments that commenced, ab initio with the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine in 2008; the other three (3), being the Departments of Human Anatomy, Pharmacology and Human Physiology. The Department of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Sciences also services the pre-clinical training of medical students. The first set of students was enrolled in 2009.
The Department of Community Medicine is the only department within the Faculty of Medicine that is engaged with the training of medical students at all levels, throughout the 6-year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) programme. Coupled with the philosophy of the Kaduna State University medical school to train doctors to the existing realities of today’s Nigeria and in line with the nation’s Health Policy, which is based on Primary Health Care- a major component of Public Health, both globally and locally, especially in the developing world; the department is strategically positioned in the medical curriculum to inculcate values and skills into medical students-in-training. This 6-year exposure to the rudiments, dynamics and diversities of Community Medicine is intended to groom and grow a crop of competent medical professionals, who are locally produced for global impact and relevance.
The curriculum in Community Medicine seeks to enable the young doctor-to-be to view the client/patient more broadly, beyond a rather traditionally-narrowed clinical “pin-hole” but as belonging to and coming out of a community; and thus, approach and address issues regarding the individual from a wholistic perspective rather than in isolation. This is in line with the third objective of the medical school, which is:
“To imbibe in our graduates a sense of personal responsibility both towards the problem of individual patients as well as the overall social needs of the community of which he/she is a part.
Check the student’s handbook for admission requirements.
