Teaching community diagnosis: integrating community experience with meeting graduate standards for health educators

In 1996, the American Association for Health Education and the Society for Public Health Education developed new Standards for the Preparation of Graduate Level Health Educators. Learning to work effectively with communities is an essential part of graduate level health education. This article provides an overview of the community diagnosis (CD) class, a component of the Master's in Public Health program in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina. CD is a required two-semester class in which student teams work with preceptors to define a client community, assess its needs and strengths, and establish a foundation of quantitative and qualitative data for future community action. This experience provides a strong foundation for development of graduate level competencies and fosters an appreciation for the complexity of partnerships with communities.