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Impact of Health Promotion Campaign Planning Training on Health Campaign Planning Skills among Public Health Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Health promotion campaigns are important public health interventions for increasing awareness, influencing health behaviours, addressing preventable health risks, and encouraging communities to adopt healthier practices. Effective health campaigns require public health professionals to possess appropriate skills in identifying target populations, defining health problems, setting measurable objectives, developing key messages, selecting communication channels, mobilizing resources, preparing implementation plans, engaging stakeholders, and monitoring and evaluating campaign activities. However, public health students may have limited practical exposure to the systematic planning and development of health promotion campaigns, which may affect their preparedness for professional public health practice. Health promotion campaign planning training provides an opportunity to strengthen students' theoretical knowledge and practical competencies in designing effective health campaigns. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of health promotion campaign planning training on health campaign planning skills among public health students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on Experiential Learning Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Competency-Based Education Theory. Experiential Learning Theory explains how students develop practical competencies through direct experience, reflection, conceptualization, and application. Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes observational learning, behavioural modelling, self-efficacy, feedback, and environmental influences in developing health communication and campaign-planning competencies. Competency-Based Education Theory focuses on the acquisition and demonstration of measurable knowledge, skills, attitudes, and professional competencies required for effective public health practice. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how health promotion campaign planning training may influence health campaign planning skills among public health students in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise undergraduate public health students enrolled in selected universities and other accredited tertiary institutions offering public health programmes in Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, institutions, public health departments or programmes, levels of study, and eligible students. Health promotion campaign planning training will be assessed using indicators such as exposure to campaign-planning training sessions, duration and frequency of training, health needs assessment exercises, target audience identification, campaign objective development, message development, selection of communication channels, campaign material design, stakeholder identification, resource mobilization, budgeting, implementation scheduling, risk communication, community engagement, monitoring, evaluation, and practical campaign-planning exercises. Health campaign planning skills will be assessed using indicators such as students' ability to identify health problems and target populations, formulate measurable campaign objectives, develop appropriate health messages, select suitable communication channels, prepare campaign work plans, identify stakeholders, develop basic budgets, allocate resources, plan campaign activities, develop monitoring indicators, establish evaluation methods, and prepare coherent health campaign proposals. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, campaign-planning knowledge tests, competency assessment instruments, practical campaign-planning tasks, student project records, training records, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental intervention is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, exposure to campaign-planning training, and levels of campaign-planning skills. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of health promotion campaign planning training on health campaign planning skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, campaign-planning skill scores before and after the training may be compared with those of a comparison group to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that health promotion campaign planning training has a significant positive impact on health campaign planning skills among public health students in Nigeria. Students exposed to structured and practical campaign-planning training are expected to demonstrate stronger competencies in designing and organizing health promotion campaigns than students with limited training exposure. Training may improve students' ability to conduct audience assessments, formulate measurable objectives, develop culturally appropriate health messages, select effective communication channels, prepare campaign work plans and budgets, engage relevant stakeholders, and develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation plans. Practical exercises, group activities, simulations, and real-world campaign-planning assignments may further improve students' confidence and ability to apply theoretical knowledge to public health communication challenges. However, inadequate training resources, limited access to practical campaign activities, insufficient supervision, large class sizes, limited institutional funding, and inadequate access to communication technologies may reduce the effectiveness of training. The study therefore expects structured, practical, adequately supervised, and competency-based health promotion campaign planning training to contribute significantly to improved health campaign planning skills among public health students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on health promotion education, health campaign planning, public health education, health communication, experiential learning, competency development, health behaviour change, community engagement, and public health workforce development in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Education, universities, public health training institutions, accreditation and regulatory bodies, public health departments, health promotion agencies, public health educators, communication specialists, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening practical health promotion education. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating structured campaign-planning training into public health curricula, strengthening practical health communication exercises, improving supervision and mentorship, developing standardized campaign-planning competency assessments, increasing students' exposure to real-world health campaigns, and strengthening collaboration between academic institutions and public health organizations to prepare competent public health professionals in Nigeria.

Keywords: Health promotion campaign planning training, health campaign planning skills, public health students, health promotion, health communication, experiential learning, competency development, public health education, campaign planning, Nigeria, public health.