Valeological competence of non-medical students as a tool for their healthy and safe future life

Abstract

Forming valeological competence of non-medical higher education students is a topical pedagogical problem, which is evidenced by the lack of valeological competence definition in terms of its name and content in the regulatory legal acts of Ukraine and in national standards of higher education, requirements for the degrees of formation of this competence depending on students’ educational level, the standard of valeological higher education. Existing textbooks of valeological disciplines are also imperfect. Putting into practice the state policy on preventing socially significant diseases with controlled and nominally controlled risk factors given the importance of both personal and public health, necessitates forming non-medical students’ valeological competence. In the review paper forming Valeology as a science, attitude of society and scientific community to it, connection with the legislation of Ukraine on health and health-saving, different approaches to defining the essence of valeological competence, which is formed in the course of studying valeological disciplines, are analysed. A comparative analysis of certain aspects of forming valeological competence of students of medical and non-medical higher education has been carried out. The connections of valeological competence with the culture of health has been considered. It has been concluded that valeological competence is a tool for forming a healthy lifestyle and safe behavior. We also consider it necessary to improve the attitude of society and the scientific community to Valeology through a critical rethinking of the content of educational programs in valeological disciplines. And first of all, this concerns the relevance to exclude from them issues that failed the test in accordance with the criteria of evidence-based medicine. Keywords: Valeology, valeological culture, Health Pedagogy.