Dr Janice Johnston has recently retired from the post of Deputy Director (Education) of the School of Public Health after serving the University of Hong Kong for thirty years and moved back to Canada.

In recognition of her contribution to teaching and research, she received the University Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020 Teaching Excellence Awards from the University and the Faculty Teaching Medal 2020 from the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine.  The programme of Master of Public Health which she played a pivotal role in its development has trained thousands of professionals to become effective public health practitioners and leaders.

How did you start your affiliation with HKU Med?
I started working at HKU as a part-time research assistant on July 3, 1990.  I was working with Professor Tony Hedley on the wrap up of a large commissioned study on primary care.  This study in part informed the Working Party Report on Primary Care.  Out of this work came a joint project with the Department of Hospital Services on Specialist Outpatient Care.  This work led to my PhD.  During my early years in the Department, I also contributed to teaching in the MBBS programme and supported continuing education programmes for doctors working towards their public health specialist qualifications.  In the mid 1990’s, I was seconded to the Expert Subcommittee on Grant Applications and Awards (this later became the HMRF) – an appointment which lasted 15 years. 

How would you describe your teaching style?
My teaching and learning philosophy formed in my early years in which I worked with indigenous and other marginalized groups in northern Canada and with young soldiers and pilots in southern Germany in both health care and high school settings.  In these settings, it was clearly evident, that the social determinants of health substantially impacted teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes in both patients and students. It is here, at this time, that I became committed to providing learning environments where knowledge acquisition would lead to the assessment and acceptance of evidence and the translation of this into practice by both professionals and individuals.  My approach to teaching and learning means that I strive to support student’s intellectual curiosity and growth – and meet the current environmental challenges, whether these be the social movement or COVID 19.

What is the most creative thing you have done to engage your students?
My work to innovate teaching and learning has reached beyond Hong Kong.   For MBBS, I have been instrumental in introducing a MBBS Year 3 Enrichment Year service learning initiative in Myanmar.  This service learning activity places students with emergency medicine specialists at Yangon General Hospital and North Okkalapa Hosptial.  The students with their emergency medicine site supervisors are exposed to trauma care in a low and middle income country. They also conduct research for the emergency medicine doctors on topics of specific utility to the site supervisor.  At the postgraduate level, I have worked with the Myanmar emergency medicine higher specialist trainees to enhance their knowledge and skills in health service management. Both of these initiatives required me to adapt more traditional didactic pedagogical approaches to those which were more culturally sensitive and accommodated the diverse needs of the students and the constraints of the learning environment in Myanmar.

While new programmes are exciting, working with sunsetting programmes have also marked my career.  In programmes I have helped to sunset I sought to support teachers and students such that excellence in teaching and learning was maintained.

How do you relate to your students? How do you integrate your research and teaching?
I have been engaged in curriculum development, evaluation and assessment for at least 25 years.  An important part of my work in undergraduate programmes has been developing interdisciplinary programmes – examples of this are found in MBBS – adding a kinesiology / human movement session to the programme, interdisciplinary HRP and PCP.

I co-wrote the BASc GHD proposal, negotiated the structure of the major and minors, led the critical thinking and planning for the field placement and other enrichment and exchange initiatives.  I wrote the initial MPH proposal in 2000 and led all subsequent curriculum revisions including the 2015 TPG curriculum revisions, the QAC review and I am now leading our accreditation submission to the Council on Education for Public Health.   All of these have required an intense review and rethink of the programme itself as well as engaging and working with staff to bring them around to these programme changes.

In addition to curriculum development I have led broad changes across undergraduate and post graduate curricula in assessment.  I have also introduced methods to assess student satisfaction and self-reported competency achievement by the students.  This assessment has been critical to informing programme level leadership.

Over the years I have led a number of significant research projects that have directly led to improvements in teaching and learning – both within the formal curriculum and that which directly impacts patient care.

Watch Dr Johnston’s exclusive video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx-Qph59t6E